Dogged by controversy, Sadda Haq set for release tomorrow

A Punjabi film apparently glorifying the Khalistan movement and militant leaders Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Balwant Singh Rajoana and Jagtar Singh Hawara is set to release on Friday, with the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal overturning the censor board’s decision to ban it.

Updated on: Apr 4, 2013, 24:05:09 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A Punjabi film apparently glorifying the Khalistan movement and militant leaders Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Balwant Singh Rajoana and Jagtar Singh Hawara is set to release on Friday, with the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal overturning the censor board’s decision to ban it.

The board had refused certification to Sadda Haq (Our right) after its producer Kuljinder Sidhu — who also plays the film’s lead, a hockey player-turned-militant — rejected its suggestion that he delete 20 scenes that apparently sympathise with the movement of the 1980s and early 1990s.

A song in the film, Baghi (rebel), sung by UK-based Punjabi singer Jazzy B, praises the three militant leaders for their valour and rebellious nature. Another song, ‘Dabb de killi’ (pull the trigger), is also believed to be provocative. The songs have gone viral on YouTube.

Sidhu — whose elder brother Goldie joined the militant ranks and was gunned down by security forces in 1992 — said there was nothing wrong in a movie projecting the viewpoint of a militant when films about criminals, such as Bandit Queen and Once Upon a Time in Mumbai, were allowed.

“From what I have observed, by and large the reason (for militancy) was that people felt injustice was being done to Punjab by successive central governments… I wanted to depict how politicians exploited the situation, gave issues a communal colour and used the policy of divide and rule between communities,” Sidhu said.

The censor board felt the film’s pro-Khalistan sentiment could create law and order problems in Punjab. “The movie has huge anti-India sentiment and we wanted some scenes deleted,” a board member said.

Sikh religious organisations, including the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, however, said there wasn’t anything in the movie that would create friction in society. The Shiromani Akali Dal-led Punjab government has also backed Sadda Haq.

After Sidhu approached the tribunal, it allowed the movie to be screened with minor modifications.

Information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari, the Ludhiana MP, refused to get drawn into the controversy, saying “the government does not play big brother and does not interfere with statutory processes” laid down in the Cinematograph Act. “If certain sensitivities are involved, it is for the state government to take cognisance and act accordingly,” he said.

Inputs from Archna Matharu, Amritsar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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