BANGALORE: On Saturday, the Kannada film industry huddled up for an emergency meeting. The issue at hand was the title of Kannada film Hodi Maga.
Hodi Maga refers to a mother asking her son to beat up someone. Now, the Censor Board being the Censor Board, just had to spur into action against this ‘provocative’ title.
The producer of this film, Rajkumar, is understandably upset. The film was all set for an elaborate release statewide and a grand audio release function was held at Rajkumar’s birth anniversary recently. Rajkumar wonders why the Censor Board officer A Chandrasekhar was mum all this while, and now wants the title changed.
LOOKING FOR LOGIC “I had registered the title with the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce. No one had objected to it at the time of registration. Now, the Censor Board has raised an objection to the title of the film. I do not understand the logic behind its argument,” says Rajkumar.
Producer Rajkumar and director P Satya had approached Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce president Jayamala and Kannada Films Producers’ Association president K C N Chandrasekhar to arrive at a solution.
In the meeting on Saturday, Kannada film producers expressed their solidarity with Rajkumar.
Censor Board officer Chandrasekhar, on his part, claims that he had written a letter to the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce on the Hodi Maga issue. “I will not agree with the producer who claims that I am objecting the film’s title at the time of its release.
I had advised the Chamber six months back to either change or modify the title of Hodi Maga. How can they blame me?” asks Chandrasekhar.
According to Chandrasekhar, the title of the film `Hodi Maga’ is provocative and does not conform with the guidelines of the Censor Board. “It is against the sixth paragraph of Censor Board guidelines,” says a precise Chandrasekhar.
Director Satya says that the Censor Board officer does not have the power to object to a title of the film even before the film is shot.
HEROIC TAKE Shivarajkumar, who is playing the lead role, is a perplexed man. “I want to know how many people have become gansters after watching movies? Why does the Censor Board official discriminate towards Kannada films? Why has he silent over the violence and objectionable sequences in other language films? I think there should not be a separate set of rules for Kannada films. I hope he will change his attitude towards Kannada films,” says Shivarajkumar.
PAST IMPERFECT Kannada film-lovers would be familiar with the phrase Hodi Maga as it was featured in a superhit song from the film Jogi. Another common factor for this name is Shivarajkumar: He played the lead role in Jogi and is now playing the lead in Hodi Maga.
And it is not the first time that Shivarajkumar’s films is facing Censor trouble. His films Santa and Madesha were in trouble when the Censor Board officer refused to give a ‘U’ certificate for these films.
It was heard that Parvathamma Rajkumar had also expressed displeasure over the denial of a ‘U’ certificate for Santa.
WORD POWER Jayamala says that she had Chandrasekhar on Saturday evening and convinced him to certify the film for screening after a few modifications to the title. “I have suggested that the word ‘Hattrick’ to ‘Hodi Maga’ and Chandrasekhar has agreed. I think the problem has been solved,” says Jayamala.
Chandrasekhar, however, is in no mood to give up without a last-ditch fight. He insists that the word Hattrick should not be lost in a play of font sizes. “I will not allow ‘Hat Trick’ to be printed in a smaller size than ‘Hodi Maga’ in the posters. I have asked the producer to show me the design of the modified poster. I will certify the film only after he submits the modified design of the poster,” he says.