Recently, he spoke about the history of censorship in Indian cinema and recalled an incident involving Dilip Kumar’s 1961 film Ganga Jamuna. Filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia has often been vocal about his views. He shared how the film faced objections from the censor board over a dialogue and claimed that the matter eventually reached India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru .
Tigmanshu is currently gearing up for the release of his directorial Ghamasan. The film stars Arshad Warsi and Pratik Gandhi and is set to premiere on ZEE5 on September 11.
‘Jawaharlal Nehru got the film passed with the censor board’
They think that their films won’t work. The board objected to the dialogue because Dilip Kumar was Muslim, according to Tigmanshu. Because he knew the Prime Minister, he said that if all the other films stuck with the censor board were not cleared, people would assume Dilip Kumar got his film passed.
You are a Muslim. The argument was, ‘The character’s name in the film is Ganga. He is a Hindu. He can say Hey Ram. But the censor board did not agree. Tigmanshu claimed that the matter eventually reached Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who watched the film and did not find an issue with it. Tigmanshu shared that another problem arose after this. “If someone asks you about the story of Dhurandhar, you can’t tell it. There is a guy who goes to Pakistan aur waha tabahi macha deta hai. Is this a story? The stories are finished in films. Also, those who tell the stories are also finished and those who want to tell stories aren’t allowed to do so.
Dilip Kumar’s 1961 film Ganga Jamuna reportedly faced trouble with the censor board over a scene in which his character says “Hey Ram” while dying. Speaking about the matter at The Wire’s State of Media and Film Industry event, Tigmanshu said, “The censor board stopped the film and gave a very strange reason. They said, ‘How can you say Hey Ram? So, he said, all the other films were cleared as well. They follow the same pattern,” he said.
