‘You are a Muslim’: Tigmanshu Dhulia recalls Dilip Kumar’s Ganga Jamuna censorship row; Jawaharlal Nehru intervened
Here's the latest update from the Bollywood world:
Filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia has often been vocal about his views. Of late, he spoke about the history of censorship in Indian cinema and recalled an incident involving Dilip Kumar’s 1961 movie Ganga Jamuna. He shared how the movie faced objections from the censor board over a dialogue and claimed that the matter eventually reached India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru .
Adding to this, Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala in a still from Ganga Jamuna. ‘How can you say Hey Ram?’ Dilip Kumar’s 1961 movie Ganga Jamuna as per reports faced trouble with the censor board over a scene in which his character says “Hey Ram” while dying. According to Tigmanshu, the board objected to the dialogue because Dilip Kumar was Muslim.
Meanwhile, Speaking about the matter at The Wire’s State of Media and Movie Industry event, Tigmanshu shared, “The censor board stopped the movie and gave a very strange reason. They shared, ‘How can you say Hey Ram? You are a Muslim.’ The argument was, ‘The character’s name in the movie is Ganga. He is a Hindu. He can say Hey Ram.’ But the censor board did not agree.”
Notably, For the unversed, Dilip Kumar was born Muhammad Yusuf Khan. He adopted the screen name Dilip Kumar early in his career.
As per the latest buzz, Tigmanshu claimed that the matter eventually reached Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who watched the movie and did not find an issue with it.
In further updates, Tigmanshu shared that another problem arose after this. He shared that if all the other films stuck with the censor board were not cleared, people would assume Dilip Kumar got his movie passed because he knew the Prime Minister. So, he shared, all the other films were cleared as well.
On top of that, During the same interaction, Tigmanshu also criticised Ranveer Singh’s Dhurandhar films, claiming that the duology lacks a compelling story.
“If someone asks you about the story of Dhurandhar, you can't tell it. There is a guy who goes to Pakistan aur waha tabahi macha deta hai. Is this a story? The stories are finished in films. Also, those who tell the stories are also finished and those who want to tell stories aren't allowed to do so. They think that their films won't work. They follow the same pattern,” he shared.
Source: Hindustan Times