They say any publicity is good publicity. Unless, of course, it’s really not favourable. Like when religious outfits threaten to cut off heads of known figures or when the highest courts intervene between filmmakers and the government. With 2.0 released, the film had its moment of controversy when the cellular network operators filing a complaint against the movie for promoting “obscurantist and anti-scientific attitudes against mobile phones, towers and mobile services.”
Bearing this in mind, we bring other movies that faced its share of controversies right before its release, some even being subjected to threats of being banned and pulled the plug on.
2.0
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), merely two-three days before the film’s official release, put out a complaint saying that the film “depicts mobile phones and mobile towers as harmful to living creatures.” The COAI sent a legal notice to the film producers (Lyca Productions and Dharma Productions) wherein they alleged that the sci-fi action film promoted “obscurantist and anti-scientific attitudes towards mobile phone, towers and mobile services”. This NPO works with government agencies like the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Irrespective of this, the film released and has been receiving rave reviews.
Read JFW’s review of the film here!
Padmaavat
Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s magnum opus enraged various religious outfits including descendants of Rajputs. The controversy lasted for months. Right from the time the movie’s title was named till hours before the release of the film, violence prevailed. The outfits felt that the film mispresented and insulted Rajputs and their bravery. So what did they do? They burned down sets, vandalised public property and threatened to behead Bhansali and his lead actress Deepika Padukone. But, the film released and, turns out, didn’t really offend anybody. But, this is a controversy that one can never forget.
Vishwaroopam
Vishwaroopam was in trouble when the Hindu Makkal Katchi party demanded the change of its title from a Sanskrit title to a purely Tamil one. Furthermore, Kamal Haasan announced that the film would have a direct-to-home (DTH) premiere but theatre owners demanded a rollback of this plan as they feared major revenue losses to DTH companies. After that, various Muslim groups in Tamil Nadu demanded the ban of the film claiming that the film would hurt Muslim sentiments. Although the film was cleared by Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), district collectors in the state of Tamil Nadu gave orders to the theatre owners to not show the film citing law and order problems.
Kaththi
Right before the release of the film, there were reports of vandalism and defacing public property. Tamil groups felt that the film shouldn’t release as they felt that Lyca Productions, who was bankrolling the film, had links to Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan President who has been accused of massacring Tamil civilians in his war against the LTTE. Furthermore, Telugu Film director Narasimha Rao, who has worked as an associate director with Shankar of ‘2.0’ fame, said that his story was plagiarised and sought the help of the United Forum of Telugu Film Directors.
Sarkar
This AR Murugadoss – Vijay film, merely days before its release, was embroiled in a rather dramatic face-off. Writer Varun Rajendran, who filed a plagiarism complaint against the film earlier in 2018, filed a case against the team with the Madras High Court. He alleged that Murugadoss’ film is a copy of his story ‘Sengol’ and believed that Murugadoss plagiarised the script to make his high-budgeted film. Incidentally, this isn’t the first Murugadoss is facing plagiarism charges. Back when his film ‘Kaththi’ was slated to release, a filmmaker named Gopi Nainar, who eventually went on to make the blockbuster ‘Aramm’, slapped charges against Murugadoss for stealing his script. He later withdrew his allegations, which lead to ‘Kaththi’ releasing and becoming a hit. Another filmmaker had posed similar allegations against Murugadoss shortly after ‘Kaththi’ was announced.
Udta Punjab
The film faced massive censorship issues when the makers sought out a certificate from the CBFC. Back then, the certification board was headed by Pahlaj Nihalani. The Censor Board came out with a whopping list of 94 cuts and 13 pointers prior to the film’s release. One of the pointers even included deleting the names of cities in Punjab. The Bombay HC cleared the film with one cut and disclaimers. But the film’s trouble didn’t end there. Two days before its release, the film was leaked online thus making it difficult to sustain itself in the box office.