Anubhav Sinha is currently gearing up for the release of his upcoming social-political drama, Bheed. The film stars Rajkummar Rao, Bhumi Pednekar, Dia Mirza, Pankaj Kapur, and Kritika Kamra in the lead roles.
Just a few days after the release of the film's trailer, it was made private on YouTube. It resurfaced on the platform after a sequence that featured a voiceover of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's lockdown announcement was removed from the trailer.
In a recent interview, the film's director opened up about the same and the other controversies surrounding the lockdown-centered drama.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Sinha shared, "There are more changes in the trailer, but this makes more news for you. Every film goes through various such challenges. In Thappad I wanted to use Amrita Pritam's poem. I couldn’t use it so one day before the film release, I had to change it.
"It didn’t matter to anybody, why? Did you ask me? I had to overnight write a poem, sync with a Punjabi lip sync. I was in Delhi, Kumud Mishra was dubbing it from Mumbai. I had to write a poem to match Amrita Pritam’s lip sync in Punjabi! That's an interesting story, not this (removal of PM Modi's speech from the trailer). Let's talk about Bheed the story. I don’t want to distract people from the story of Bheed, as it's way more interesting," the filmmaker added.
Talking about the outrage on Twitter after the release of Bheed's trailer, Sinha further told The Indian Express, "Who are those people? On Twitter? Internet is not a farce but a lot of it is. People have opinions. Like how in small towns people gather around pan shops, the same way Twitter has a lot of these discussions.
"Yes I have heard I am anti-national before. I do hear it for most of my films. But it didn’t surprise me. I love India, I love the original idea of India. Anybody who loves India more than I do, I respect that person. I’m trying to do my best as a lover and I’m sure even they’ve done their best as lovers of the country," Sinha shared with the publication.
Bheed is jointly produced by Sinha and Bhushan Kumar. It will hit the big screens on 24 March.
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