Producer Sanjay Raut wants 'Thackeray' uncensored like Balasaheb Thackeray
Thackeray released its first trailer on December 26 and offered a look at the rise of Balasaheb Thackeray and his actions while in power as founder and head of the Shiv Sena party. While the trailer was deeply impactful, the film ran into trouble with the CBFC, which wanted scenes and dialogues censored. However, scriptwriter and producer Sanjay Raut categorically refused. Here's why.
Racially hurtful dialogues, controversial religious statements, 'Thackeray' has it all
The CBFC objected to a scene involving the Babri Masjid demolition where Nawazuddin Siddiqui, portraying Bal Thackeray, seems to lack remorse and defiantly defends his stance of instigating agitators to destroy the mosque. They also objected to the use of 'yandu gundu', which is meant as an insult to the South Indians living in Mumbai, and was actively started by Thackeray.
'Thackeray' comes under fire from noted South Indian actor
Siddharth Suryanarayan, the South Indian actor, slammed the trailer for hate-mongering. The un-subtitled Marathi trailer has a dialogue, missing from the Hindi trailer. Siddiqui's Thackeray refers to South Indians as 'saale yandugundu' and concludes saying, 'Uthao lungi, bajao pungi', an infamous phrase used to ridicule South Indians living in Maharashtra. Siddharth pointed out how the movie glorified the man who made such hateful speeches.
'No solidarity shown to South Indians who make #Mumbai great'
Balasaheb had no censor, neither should this movie, says Raut
In the face of controversy and potential censorship, Raut took a defiant stand. He said that Balasaheb never had censors. Since his writings, speeches and cartoons could never be subjected to either scissors or censors, this movie too could not be subjected to censorship. While promising a sequel, Raut said there was absolutely no question of banning scenes, since the film was about Thackeray.
'Truth, not fiction' claims Raut in agitated state
Raut said, "Who will decide what is true or false about Balasaheb? This a biopic about how Balasaheb lived and spoke. This is a true story and not fiction. Balasaheb's life was an open book. The censors will realise this."
A biopic should be completely truthful, without censorship
Going slightly off-topic in the film's defense, Quentin Tarantino often faces racism accusations for using the 'n-word' in movies. Tarantino's justification is he does not endorse it, but accurately portrays characters. Thackeray, controversially, did use 'yandu gundu', so let it remain for accuracy, but the film should not glorify his hate speech. This seems unlikely considering Raut, the producer, is a Shiv Sena member.
