Priya Belliappa’s ambitious outing (previously titled Ring Road Shubha) seems to have become a learning curve for the director. While she successfully handled an all-woman team while making the film, the censor board has come up with new lessons for her.
While the board has categorically instructed the director to change the name of the film, since it directly referred to the infamous murder of her fiance by Shubha Shankarnarayan. The board also suggested a few changes, which, on the face of it were minor, but as per the director, involved redoing several scenes which cost her money and time.
“The film has been delayed because of these changes. We had to make about 10 per cent alterations including in the title. Apparently, the censor’s list of changes included the title, the character names and even the profession. The board was concerned about the controversial content and advised us to make the changes so that we do not face any problems later,” says Priya. “One scene led to another and so we had to rethink the whole movie again. Thankfully, nothing has changed in terms of the plot,” she adds.
The team has managed to complete all changes and the director will now be announcing the release date within the next 10 days. Priya and her team are quick to stress that the film is not exactly about Shubha. “Even if the film is not directly about a person or an incident, people still make assumptions. There are so many stories coming together in this film but everyone has got an impression that it was related to the Shubha incident,” says Priya.
Interestingly, the movie is yet to get the final title as the makers are contemplating whether to keep it as Ring Road Suma (the new title) or just Ring Road. This will be decided before they go to the censors again.
“The title is a big decision. We had done all our promotions with the posters of Ring Road Shubha and now we have to do another set with another new title. Of course, we have incurred a loss in terms of investment and time. I even had to bring back all the women in my team in order to reshoot a few scenes,” says the director.