wonder and surprise...

i just wonder, baba nagarjun being such an important poet of india, when his poem 'mantra' in my film 'strings' faced such strong 'super censorship' today,why no literary person raised a voice against it...

poem being in public domain almost for 35 years today and with due rights taken, and being composed musically, i feel so let down and lonely with the discouragement shown towards this effort specially by hindi literary circle by not raising a voice against such an attack on the rights of expressions of a poet.

PIL is filed in Allahabad High court by Hindu Sadhus against the text of the poem 'mantra' written in 1969 by baba Nagarjun.

my film 'STRINGS' has no takers just because no multiplex theatre wants to take any risk of any damage by fanatics around. distributers want film to be free from all legalities. PIL in Allahabad High court has been frozen as Hindu sadhu's have realised that there are no super stars in my film,hence they will not gain any publicity.i am stuck...


in total there are only two reports in hindi on the poem and 'super censorship' till date ...
one in hindi 'outlook'and other in hindi daily 'amar ujala' in Bareli.

'Strings', Bollywood's first commercial travelogue

Tuesday, 06 June 2006 http://www.nerve.in/news:2535003861 channel: India

"The 94-minute-long movie, with both Hindi and English generously used in it, was shot at the 2003 Kumbh Mela near Nashik in a 25-day schedule. "

By Harish C. Menon

Mumbai, June 6 - Director Sanjay Jha's latest venture 'Strings', starring ramp model and veteran actor Kabir Bedi's son Adam Bedi, is an experiment at amalgamating the format of a travelogue with commercial cinema.
The film is set to release this month and the director is confident that the film will find acceptance among audiences.''Strings' is the first commercial travelogue from India as far as I know. I believe we have matured as an audience and there is immense potential for such experiments. Secondly, it is also an opportunity for people like me to try out new things,' Jha told IANS.'I believe the mushrooming of multiplexes in the country has led to the refinement of audience tastes and thus they are ready to accept some original stuff.'It has just thrown open various arenas for small-towners like me. I do not have a Yash Johar or a Yash chopra banner to back me,' Jha opined.
Jha, who started off his career in direction with the multi-starrer 'Pran Jaye Par Shaan Na Jaye' (2003) with Raveena Tandon, Divya Dutta, Dia Mirza and Rinke Khanna along with Mahesh Manjrekar, Aman Verma and Vijay Raaz, is now out to prove a point.'Pran Jaye...' with a record number of expletives on the soundtrack had got into serious trouble with the censor board.A crossover film, 'Strings' is woven around Warren Hastings (Adam Bedi), a British youth who is persuaded to experience the Mahakumbh Mela at the behest of his e-mail friend Maya (Sandhya Mridul) - a cosmopolitan and urban Indian girl. 'The film is about Hastings' travel through India, particularly his experience at the Mahakumbh and his understanding of the mysticism of India, which till then was beyond his realm of imagination,' Jha said.The 94-minute-long movie, with both Hindi and English generously used in it, was shot at the 2003 Kumbh Mela near Nashik in a 25-day schedule.
'It (the movie) helped me grow as an actor as most of the shots had to be spontaneous as we were in the midst of some two million people, whose movement obviously could not be controlled,' said Bedi.