New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday (June 13) stayed the release of Humare Baarah ahead of its scheduled release on Friday. The top court was hearing a plea challenging the Bombay high court’s decision to not stop the film’s release.
The Supreme Court directed the Bombay high court to take a decision on the petition alleging that the film was insulting to the Islamic faith.
According to Bar and Bench, the counsel representing the film said that all objectionable scenes had been removed as per the Bombay high court’s order. The Supreme Court, however, rejected the claim and said, “We saw the teaser [this] morning and all scenes are there. If [the] teaser is so offensive then what about the whole movie… Prima facie it seems you have failed since you yourself deleted the scenes from the teaser.” The filmmakers’ lawyers said that imposing a stay on the release would result in significant financial losses for the makers.
It had been argued in the Bombay high court that the film, directed by Kamal Chandra, portrays Muslims in bad light. One of the film’s posters shows actor Anu Kapoor standing in front of a crowd of Muslim women who have their hands tied and mouths sewn shut with the words “left China behind”.
The plea also said that a verse from the Quran spoken in the film was being misrepresented.
The Bombay high court had earlier restrained the makers from releasing the film till June 14. But, a day after that order, it asked the Central Board of Film Certification to form a panel to view the film, the Indian Express reported.
The court later allowed the release of the film on the condition that certain dialogues be deleted. The panel asked for more time to share their comments on the film but the high court objected to that, the report said.
Sufi Khan, one of the film’s writers, in an interview to a news channel, said that the movie is not about Islam but rather the story of the entire country. However, the imagery associated with the film does not depict people from other faiths. Ashwini Kalsekar and Manoj Joshi are among the notable faces associated with the film.
