A sizzling song Rathi Manmatha in Thippaji Circle has resulted in the film getting an A certificate. The Censor Board members who watched the film last Saturday asked the makers of the film to either remove the song or go with an ‘A’ certificate and surprisingly director Aditya Chikkanna had no option but to go with an ‘A’, only to keep his producers happy.
The producers who were present at the Censor Board were okay with the certification. “The costume in the song suggested by a dancer master made the song provocative and that got the film an ‘A’ certificate.” says Chikkanna.
Apparently the song in question is just an introduction song and the makers of the film had to bring in a girl from outside the Kannada industry, since actress Pooja rejected to do this particular sizzling number. “I confess that this song has changed the perception of the film. But, when Pooja rejected the song, we had to go for a Mumbai girl, and now because of the song, the whole film is being viewed as a commercial flick,” he explains.
However Chikkanna is confident about the subject and says that he has handled the movie very respectfully. “Let us not focus only on the song. I want people to watch the film, to know how I have shown Pooja as a devadasi in a very respectful way. I have focused on Thippaji’s social status, her dignity and her struggles of being a devadasi and how she managed to look after her daughter,” says Chikkanna, adding, “The producers spent 20 lakhs on the song sequence itself. It was not in my hands and I had to go by what the producers wanted.” However, the censor board has allowed Thippaji Circle to be telecast on the small screen without the song. “I am a 69-year-old director and I have struggled for nearly 10 years, to get an offer to direct a film and I finally got to make Thippaji Circle. I have done some clean films in my career. Today, I feel that everything is not in the director’s hands. Somewhere we have to bow down to artistes and producers. A film, which was termed as an art film has now been called as a commercial flick only because of a song. I don’t mind, as far as the film Thippaji Circle reaches a good number of audiences,” he says.
Apart from Pooja, Thippaji also stars DR Suresh Sharma in the lead, along with Neha Patil and Dhruv Sharma.