TV actors express shock at The Dirty Picture's stalled premiere

Vidya Balan starrer The Dirty Picture was scheduled to premiere on Sony Entertainment Television, but the telecast of this award winning Bollywood movie was cancelled at the last moment. This Ekta Kapoor film which is said to have witnessed nearly 58 cuts only to suit the TV audiences wasn’t aired on the small screen following a directive from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, which said a U/A certified film could be shown on the small screen only late in the night. The flick was scheduled to telecast on 12 pm and again on 8 pm on 22 April 2012, but this eleventh hour decision has left many furious. Aishwarya Sakhuja criticizes this decision. “The movie promos that are aired on TV are way more provocative than the entire Dirty Picture put together. Those 30 seconds advertisements are enough to get people’s mind racing in a weird fashion.” Mohit Sehgal is of the opinion that the timeslot doesn’t matter. “You can’t stop kids from watching something, but people always have the power of the remote with them. So even if a film is aired on 1 pm or in the late night slot, you can stop the kids from watching it. However, I would also like to say that people have already watched this blockbuster. Furthermore, even TV has had its share of bold content. Sometime back, Bade Achhe Lagte Hain aired some steamy scenes. So it is not about the content, but more about the power of remote control.” Vishal Karwal shares the same opinion and says stalling the premiere of this movie isn’t right. “This National Awards winning movie was edited to suit TV audiences, but even after that it wasn’t aired is not acceptable. If timeslot is the issue, then children nowadays have access to almost everything, but they are intelligent enough to understand what is good for them. The society should become broadminded. After all, the movie wasn’t devoid of a message. The protagonist didn’t care how she got success and thus met a bad end. The viewers would have got to learn so much from it.” “This flick has been critically acclaimed and almost everyone has seen it in movie theatres. Moreover, TV hasn’t been devoid of bold content, so what is this fuss about. This movie has widely appreciated and has some great performance to boast of,” says Gauahar Khan. The beautiful Yashashri Masurkar, however, thinks that the decision is correct. Though she loved the movie personally, she feels that the content of the movie is not suitable for television viewership. “The life of Silk Smitha can not be portrayed without the steamy scenes. So if the movie is edited, one doesn’t do justice to the script. Furthermore, since TV is a family medium, no time slot will be apt for a movie like The Dirty Picture.”