Movies that landed into controversy

Movies that landed into controversy

Indian cinema has many things to offer, but one thing that no one can ignore is the controversial side as they stay in the talks for an extended especially if it is related to the movies or any actor as they remain in the highlight for a long period.

Things go into controversy with a different point of view of other people, and that lands the film into the problem but the film team has got their ways to overcome the situation but apart from that some of these controversial movies got some critical responses, and they were even well-received at the international film festivals. 

Some of the movies that landed into controversy are listed here, and you can watch and find the reason behind the debate. 

Garm Hava

The movie Garm Hava was released in 1973, which was directed by M S Sathyu and had actor Balraj Sahni in the lead role. The film was based on an unpublished book written by Ismat Chughtai, an Urdu writer. It is quite an old movie if we see it in the 21st century, but whenever we say controversial films, this is the first movie that comes into the mind of many who knows about it. 

For those who don’t know about this controversial movie, this article will help them know about it. Apart from Balraj Sahni, Farooq Shaikh, Dinanath Zutsi, Badar Begum, Geeta Siddharth, A K Hangal, Shaukat Kaifi are seen in the the star cast. 

As we know, after the British left India, it was divided into two parts that are Pakistan and India. The story of the movie is about a businessman who is standing in between a situation, where either he can stay at the grounds of his forefather in India or else he can join other relatives in Pakistan. 

The movie showed the things that people faced during the time of partition, and this movie was deferred by eight months as the makers feared communal violence before the film was released. 

The movie is recognized as a pioneer to a new wave of art cinema in Hindi cinema, and it is one of those films that portray the problem of partition; it is the last film of Balraj Sahni as he died before its release. 

Garm Hava is still marked as one of the must-watch Bollywood movies.

Bandit Queen

The movie Bandit Queen is well-recognized in Hindi cinema, it was released in 1994. The film is based on the book named India’s Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi, written by Mala Sen. Bandit Queen was directed, written, and produced by Shekhar Kapur and Seema Biswas in the lead role.

The film landed into controversy as it included excessive use of abusive language, sexual & nudity content. Apart from that, it is one of the best feature films, and it won the award for same that is National Award for Best Feature Film. It was also selected as the entry from India as Best Foreign Language Film in the 67th Academy Awards.

Apart from that, it won many awards like Seema Biswas won the award for Best Actress, Shekhar Kapur won the award for Best Director.

Fire

It is an Indo-Canadian romantic drama film released in the year 1996. The movie is directed and written by Deepa Mehta and Nandita Das, and Shabana Azmi. Fire is the first part of the trilogy series by Deepa Mehta, and the following two parts were named Earth which was released in the year 1998, and Water in the year 2005. 

Fire is produced by Deepa Mehta and Nandita Das and the music for the movie is given by A R Rahman. 

Even after it was cleared by the film certification committee of India in 1998. The board said that this is an important story for Indian women and it was released on November 13 and ran house fulls in over 40 theatres for almost three weeks but, after sometime around two hundred people from Shiv Sainik crashed at one of the theatres and smashed the glass panels, burnt the posters. 

After this incident, a few theatres were shut down, and many tried to stop the screening. Later after some time and procedure, the film was rescreened  

without any cuts, and after that, it continued without any incident.

Paanch 

The movie Paanch was released in the year 2003 which is based on a crime thriller directed and written by Anurag Kashyap. The star cast of the film, included Kay Kay Menon, Vijay Maurya, Aditya Shrivastava, Tejaswini Kolhapure, and Joy Fernandes. The movie is inspired by the Joshi serial murder in 1976-77 in Pune.

It is produced by Padmini Kolhapure, Tutu Sharma, and Jaydev Banerjee. 

You may think, where was the movie released as this movie was not released into theatres or any home video as the Central Board of Certification objected about the violence in the film, foul language, and the depiction of drug abuse. After that makers edited it and got some scenes cuts and later it was cleared by the board of certification in the year 2003. Still, the movie could not make it into the theatres due to some other problems of the Producer, and due to that, it was later made available on torrent websites.

Anurag Kashyap is a pioneer filmmaker and he is one of the most controversial in the Hindi film industry as he is not so away from the bold topics that may not suit some Indian communities. This movie was his directorial debut, and it remained unreleased, but it showed something, that reality is about the drugs, violence, sex, etc. about the true-life event.

It was screened at the Osian’s Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema in 2005, Filmfest Hamburg in 2003, Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, and Jagran Film Festival. 

Hava Aney Dey

Movie Hava Aney Dey is a drama film released in the year 2004 which is directed & written by Partho Sen-Gupta. It has Aniket Vishwasrao, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Nishikant Kamat, and Rajshree Thakur in the lead roles.

Hava Aney Dey covered some sensitive subjects of the India-Pakistan war, and on that Central board of certification demanded over 21 cuts in the film, but the director didn’t listen to one of them. Thus the film remains unreleased in India, but apart from India it was released abroad and also won multiple awards including Best Film in the Durban International Film Festival & BBC Audience Award in the Commonwealth Film festival, special jury award at Hong Kong International Film Festival, it was also selected at Berlin International Film Festival in the year 2004 and many more.

Water

It is a drama film released in 2005 which was directed by Deepa Mehta and the screenplay was done by Anurag Kashyap. The movie goes back to 1938 in that it explores the lives of widows at the Ashram located in Varanasi. This movie is the third series and the final series of the element trilogy by Deepa Mehta, and the other two parts were Fire in 1996 and Earth in 1998. 

Later a novel named Water: A Novel was written by author Bapsi Sidhwa in 2006. The movie included Seema Biswas, Lisa Ray, John Abraham, Manorama, and Sarala Kariyawasam in the star cast and it was produced by David Hamilton. For this movie, people said it showed the imperfect light of the country. The activists smashed some sets and also, issued suicide threats, and because of this, the director Deepa Mehta had to change to Sri Lanka.

Pink Mirror

The movie Pink Mirror is a drama film that was released in the year 2006. It was directed and produced by Sridhar Rangayan. Pink Mirror is said to be the first Indian film that focused on Indian transsexuals with the story that revolved around a gay teenager and 2 transsexuals. 

The movie showed the taboo of transsexuality that remains one of the most misunderstood topics. Pink Mirror included Edwin Fernandez, Ramesh Menon, Deepak Sonavane, Rufy Baqal, and Rishi Raj in the star cast. 

It was banned by the Central Board of Certification as it said, the movie has a lot of offensive & vulgar content, even after applying twice the filmmaker remained unsuccessful and it is still banned in India but it was released in foreign countries. 

Pink Mirror was screened in many International Film Festivals and has won many awards for the same. The film critics praised the maker for touching the sensitive & touching portrayal of the community. It was praised & supported by many reviewers, directors & global audiences. Apart from that, it was screened in more than 70 International Film Festivals and won awards like Jury Award for Best Feature in New York, USA, and Best Film of the Festival in Question de Genre in France. 

Black Friday

The movie Black Friday is a crime film that is based on Black Friday: The True Story of the Bombay Bomb Blasts. It is directed and written by Anurag Kashyap, Anurag and controversies walk hand in hand for most of the time. The film is about the event that led to blasts and it is produced by Arindam Mitra. 

The star cast of the movie included Kay Kay Menon, Aditya Srivastava Pavan Malhotra, Zakir Hussain, and Kishor Kadam. The movie was all set to release in the year 2004 but the Bombay High Court issued a stay as a petition was filled by a group and this was continued till 2007 and in that year Supreme Court of India allowed the release of the film and it was acclaimed by the critics. 

Black Friday won many awards like the Grand Jury Prize in the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, and it was also nominated for the Golden Leopard award at the Locarno International Film Festival.

Inshallah Football

Inshallah Football is a documentary film that portrays a boy from Kashmir who dreams to become a footballer but he is not allowed to travel abroad because of his father, who is an alleged militant. 

The whole film was completed in the year 2010 but faced many difficulties for the release in India. The movie was directed by Ashvin Kumare & was produced by Javed Jaffery. 

Inshallah Football faced many problems while the clearance from the Central Board of certification as it deals with a very sensitive & highly political issue in which it is shown how Indian Armed Forces have conducted in Kashmir.

 After many trials and processes, the film got ‘A’ certification which is very uncommon for documentary films as it is mostly given to feature films that have violence, nudity, etc. and these films can be shown to above the age of 18 years means adults only.

Padmavat

The movie Padmavat was released in the year 2018; it is a kind of period romantic drama that is new in the controversial list of Hindi movies. Padmavat is directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and it is inspired by an epic poem named Padmavati written by Malik Muhammad Jayasi. 

The star cast of the film includes Shahid Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, and Ranveer Singh. The story is about a beautiful Rajput queen known as Rani Padmavati who is the wife of Maharawal Ratan Singh and for her beauty, evil Alauddin Khilji desires to enslave her and attack her kingdom. 

Apart from them, Jim Sarbh, Aditi Rao, Anupriya Goenka, and Raza Murad are seen in the supporting cast of the movie. This movie became very controversial while its production as various Rajput organizations like Shri Rajput Karni Sena protested & vandalized the film sets and claimed that the Rani Padmavati is portrayed in a bad light. 

Maker Sanjay Leela Bhansali was also assaulted on the sets of the film, and many threats were recorded. Muslim organizations also started protesting about the lousy portrayal of Alauddin Khilji, and they even demanded the ban of the movie. The protest increased, and the attackers attacked several vehicles, including a school bus. 

Actress Deepika Padukone and Sanjay Leela Bhansali received death threats, later things were sorted out and the film did very well in the box office is one of the biggest films that was released that year, and the performance was very well appreciated by the audience, and it has won many awards as well. 

These are some of the movies that landed into controversy for different reasons, but if you get the chance to watch these movies, you must watch them as it is made with a thinking process that will click your mind and show you a new perspective. 

edited and proofread by nikita sharma