A complaint was filed against filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar at a local court in Bandra on Thursday for allegedly portraying women and children in an objectionable manner his latest Marathi film Nay Varan Bhat Loncha Kon Nay Koncha. The Kshatriya Maratha Seva Sanstha filed a complaint before the Bandra metropolitan magistrate court seeking action against Manjrekar under sections 292 (sale etc of obscene content), 295 (punishment for obscene acts or words in public), 34 (common intention) of the IPC and Indecent Representation of the Women Prohibition Act.
Apart from Manjrekar, the complainant has also named Narendra and Shreyans Hirawat and NH Studioz, who are producers of the film as accused in the case. The complaint states that the Marathi film, which was released in cinema halls and OTT platforms on January 14, shows sexually explicit content depicting women and children in highly objectionable ways.
When News18.com reached out to Manjrekar he said, “We made the film and showed it to the Central Board of Film Certification who gave an ‘A’ certificate to our film. We agreed to it as we were aware that our film is for adult audience. So I haven’t decided which audience can watch it. I think the legal system to do the needful so let them decide whether they find anything objectionable.”
The filmmaker further added, “Today everyone has an objection against something in every film. We can’t be catering to everyone who has objections. The producers will take a legal opinion and respond.”
When we reached out to Shreyans Hirawat he echoed Manjrekar’s thoughts, “We are taking a legal opinion and would be responding to the matter. But we have got a proper certification in place from a legal body so I don’t see any objections towards the film.”
Hirawat adds that the film that the objection has come in a little too late as the film has been running in cinemas for three weeks, “This is the third week and if anyone had any objections then it should have come out earlier when we released the film on January 14. Also, the only people allowed to watch the film in theatres are people above 18 years of age, so I don’t see the whole objection.”
This isn’t the first time that a complaint has been filed against the film. On January 12, two days before the film’s release, National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Rekha Sharma on Wednesday asked the ministry of information and broadcasting to censor the trailer and sexually explicit scenes of the upcoming Marathi film ‘Nay Varan Bhat Loncha Kon Nay Koncha’.
Talking about the incident, Hirawat says, “We complied by their request as the trailer was accessible to everyone including children. We tried to take down the trailer of the film from all possible platforms in our capacity but social media is really huge and you cannot control everything.”
