It is roughly a year to the ugly controversies that erupted with Deepa Mehta's shooting of Water in Benares.
While Water's shooting lies canceled till further notice, Benares has gone back to complete normalcy, with filmmakers shooting their films quite smoothly.
Recently, Poonam Jhavar shot her film Aanch, which also presents Vyjayanthimala's son Surinder Bali along with Nana Patekar and Ayesha Jhulka, extensively in Benares without any problem.
The main reason behind the abrupt stalling of Water's shoot say sources, was more due to some touts who were not satisfied with the money Deepa was offering them to carry on with shooting. They expected more from an international production.
Today, everything has been forgotten and filmmakers are as usual, flocking to the holy city for the locale of their films. Bengal's award-winning Rituporno Ghosh is also in the holy city for the shooting of his film based on Tagore's 'Chokher Bali'. According to him, a quiet entry, a publicity-less shoot steers a film clear of controversies.
If that be the case, why was Water vandalized? Deepa Mehta did not create any hype before she began shooting. Or was the fact that the palms of the local touts were not greased, too hard for the public there to digest and they interrupted shooting.
Like the future of Water, the truth behind the cancellation of the film's shooting is still vague.
It is roughly a year to the ugly controversies that erupted with Deepa Mehta's shooting of Water in Benares.