Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday deferred the release of the Annu Kapoor starrer 'Hamare Baarah' till June 14. The movie was slated to release on June 7. A vacation bench of Justices Nitin Borkar and Kamal Khata heard a petition by one Azhar Tambol taking objection to certain dialogues in the movie that were aired in its trailer on social media.
The Central Bureau of Film Certification (CBFC) informed the bench that it issues certificate to the movie and had no control over the movie trailers released on YouTube. The petition took objections to the two trailers aired by the filmmakers on YouTube saying that the same hurt his sentiments.
Petitioner’s Advocate Advait Sethna said that the Film has been examined at several levels by an eight member committee. A few insertions/ exertions / modification were suggested by the committee which have been complied. Only after compliance, a U/A certification was issued to the movie, Sethna added. On a court query over the objections over certain dialogues in the movie, Sethna said that the film makers have deleted the same.
“If you (CBFC) say dialogues have been deleted , then how did the petitioner see those? On what basis are you saying these dialogues have been deleted?” asked the bench. Sethna emphasised that the CBFC does not have control over the trailers released on the internet. He pointed out that a subsequent trailer released on a ticket booking app did not have those dialogues.
The judges questioned the standing of petitioner in filing the petition. “We won’t want to set a precedent where anyone from a citizen can come and get a stay on the release of a movie. It will be a complete chaos,” the bench underlined. The petitioner’s advocate said that they had served a copy of the petition to the makers of the movie. However, no one appeared for the hearing.
The court then deferred the release of the movie by a week and asked the CBFC to file its reply. The HC has kept the plea for hearing on June 10. The makers and crew of the movie had on May 24 lodged a complaint at the Versova Police Station after the film's cast and crew received continuous death and rape threats via social media from unknown individuals.