Controversial "Black Friday" Withdrawn from Patna Film Festival

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Controversial "Black Friday" Withdrawn from Patna Film Festival
Patna: Feb. 10, 2007

Patna Film Festival

Image 1Image 2Image 3Image 4Image 5


Photo by Shashi Uttam


The organizers of the 2nd film festival in Patna, on Friday, took a last minute decision not to show Anurag Kashyap's "Black Friday" that is said to be based on 1993 Mumbai riots and instead kicked off the festivity by screening Madhur Bhandarkar's critically acclaimed "Traffic Signal".

"Some of the imagery in Black Friday could be too disturbing to some people and after reviewing the film, we have decided to not screen this film despite its immense artistic appeal," an official associated with the event said on Saturday.

Though completed in 2004, Kashyap's film was having tough time being released because a few accused in the Mumbai blast case had argued the film could severely affect their shot at a free and fair trial. Now that the court has pronounced its judgment, the film has finally been given the green signal to be released nationwide.

Bihar Information and Public Relations Minister Arjun Rai, however, denied the film was pulled out of the festival on any political ground. "The film was in a bad shape with too many cuts and scratches forcing us to withdraw it from the festival since we did not have a second print for screening," Rai said.