New Delhi: Deepa Mehta's controversial film Water has been released in India after phenomenal success at the US box office and worldwide release in 57 countries, including the United Kingdom and Denmark.
While the Oscar-nominated film has won the director critical acclaim abroad for the sensitive portrayal of widows in pre-independent India, it is likely to face protests in certain pockets of India like Varanasi, where there has already been demonstrations against the film by political activists as well as Hinduvta hardliners.
The film generated much heat for projecting widows in poor light and derogatory comments about Mahatma Gandhi.
The film, which was to be shot in Varanasi originally, had faced the wrath of fundamentalists, who had even forced its production in 2000. It was in view of these protests that Deepa Mehta later shot the film in Sri Lanka with an entirely different cast four years later.
The film is set in pre-independence India and recounts the ugly treatment of widows in India in the 1930s. The film was Canada's official entry at this year's Oscars in the best foreign language film category.
"I am very happy that finally the film is releasing in India," Deepa said on the eve of her film's India debut. "What happened with Water was unprecedented," she recalls.
"Much to our surprise, the government had first given us permission to shoot the film, and then its cultural arm was protesting against it," she told CNN-IBN recently.
Water is being distributed by filmmaker Ravi Chopra in India, who says he is not much worried about controversy. "Don't worry about controversy, I have a lot of faith in the Indian people," Chopra said recently.
The movie grossed $5.6 million at the US box office and has already been theatrically released in 57 countries, including the United Kingdom and Denmark.
Comments
0 comment