‘Sitaare Zameen Par’ hits the screens after ‘modifications’

Aamir Khan's much-awaited film Sitaare Zameen Par, promoted and discussed as the 'spiritual sequel' of the 2007 Taare Zameen Par, has hit the screens on Friday, 20 June, after the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) gave it clearance — but with some unique conditions.

The censor board asked for five changes — the most important being adding a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the start, just after the ‘disclaimer’, which refers to his ‘Vision 2047’.

However, there is no clarity on the exact statement that the nine-member revision committee, headed by eminent theatre director and former director of National School of Drama (NSD) Waman Kendre, actually wanted to see added.

Kamal will not work

Other changes, as mandated and directed by the CBFC, include replacing the words “businesswoman” with “businessman”, replacing the 30-second disclaimer at the beginning of the film with a 26-second voice-over, removing a scene with the word ‘kamal’ along with the subtitles and replacing a reference to ‘Michael Jackson’ with ‘lovebirds’ in the subtitles!

The makers of the film reportedly agreed to comply with all the suggestions.

Director Waman Kendre and CBFC chairman Rajendra Singh have both refrained from saying anything on this entire episode.

Many others associated with the film industry in Mumbai also refused to comment, saying it was not possible to do so until there was clarity on what has been changed and what statement from the Prime Minister has been added.

They also said that when the filmmakers had no objection, then any comment should be made only after watching the film.

However, there is one point of agreement among all. All believe that such interference has happened before as well — except that under the current government, the censor board seems to be bent on upholding the agenda of the BJP.

Remake of Spanish film Champions

Directed by R.S. Prasanna, Sitaare Zameen Par stars Aamir Khan and Genelia Deshmukh in the lead roles and is a remake of the 2018 Spanish film Champions, the story of a basketball coach working with a team of people with intellectual disabilities as part of court-mandated community service.

While in Taare Zameen Par a teacher had resolved on his own to help a dyslexic student with his studies, in the 2 hour 38 minute sports drama of Sitaare Zameen Par, Aamir Khan plays a suspended basketball coach, who is forced to work with people with neurodevelopmental differences as a punishment.

It will be interesting to see how the lives of these people with neurodevelopmental differences are portrayed in the film, including their everyday lives and how they prepare themselves to win the match. But the hype around the film goes well beyond this and the censor board’s conditions.

Aamir Khan also put down several conditions of his own about the release and gave special instructions to the theatre owners regarding the show timings, as reported by Bollywood Hungama.

These include:

• no shows before 9 am;

• tickets to have ‘weekend pricing’;

• single screen theatres to show only Sitaare Zameen Par throughout the day, while two-screen theatres must have at least eight shows a day.

There are, of course, further permutations in the number of shows for multiplexes. For example, a three-screen multiplex must have at least 11 shows and a four-screen multiplex at least 14 shows a day.

It will be interesting to watch the impact of these conditions on the box office as well.