British screening for Wounded

Its Indian screening still held up, filmmaker Krishna Misra's "Wounded", which has a woman bandit essaying her story on screen, is to be shown in Britain.

Its Indian screening still held up, filmmaker Krishna Misra's "Wounded", which has a woman bandit essaying her story on screen, is to be shown in Britain.

HT Image

The film, which stars real-life bandit Seema Parihar, has been held back by the Indian Censor Board because of the reported use of abusive language in certain scenes.

"The Indian censors are still sitting over the movie, but my film has been accepted for screening in Britain at the Leicestershire World Cinema Festival scheduled to commence Aug 19," Misra told IANS here.

Misra, who was in Lucknow on a brief visit, said: "The film has also been selected for the competition section."

Like yesteryears famous bandit queen Phoolan Devi who laid down arms and became a member of parliament, Seema Parihar laid down arms four years ago.

But unlike Phoolan, who chose to take a plunge into politics and let actress Seema Biswas enact her story in Shekhar Kapur's "The Bandit Queen", Seema Parihar plays herself in "Wounded".

"I put my argument before the Censor Board on the plea that if Shekhar Kapur's 'Bandit Queen' could be cleared with as many as 250 abuses, then why hold back my film?" Misra said.

He said he was willing to edit some of the abuses. "The tragedy is that the Censor Board is just sitting over my plea."

Misra is grateful to the Film Foundation of India, a Mumbai-based organisation headed by actor Kabir Bedi, which is engaged in promotion of Indian cinema abroad. The foundation recommended "Wounded" for preliminary screening at the Leicestershire festival.

Another movie sent by the foundation is "Kafan" - a low-budget film based on Munshi Prem Chand's famous classic.