Aarakshan being labelled an ‘anti-dalit’ film

<i>Aarakshan</i> being labelled an ‘anti-dalit’ film

Three weeks before it is slated to hit the theatres, Prakash Jha’s film Aarakshan has run into trouble with the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) calling it “anti-dalit”.

The movie is about reservations for minorities in the education system and Saif Ali Khan plays a dalit teacher. Other principal roles are played by Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone and Pateik Babbar. Even though the film has been cleared with a U/A certificate by the Censor Board, the NCSC says it won’t let the movie run at theatres because it believes the film is anti-dalit.

“Aarakshan is anti-Dalit and against the depressed class and the portrayal is unfair,” Commission chairman P L Punia told reporters on Friday.

He said the Commission had written to the Film Censor Board that it wanted to watch this film before it is released next month.

“The release date of the film had been deferred as the Commission wanted to watch it with the censor board,” he said.

Punia said a meeting of the Commission with the censor board is fixed for July 25 on the issue of Aarakshan. Taking a dig at the film's director Parkash Jha, Punia said, “Jha says he will not show the movie to the Commission but we have not even asked him as the matter is between us and the Censor Board.”

When his attention was drawn towards the Censor Board's certificate to the film, he said that "the Commission had enough powers to intervene in the matter."