Says CBFC CEO Anurag Shrivastava about the leaked version of Great Grand Masti two weeks prior to its release.
Less than a month ago, Udta Punjab was leaked online two days before its release and now Great Grand Masti has been leaked online two weeks prior to its theatrical release. Coincidentally both the films have been co-produced by Balaji Motion Pictures. And both had been ordered several cuts by the Central Board Of Film Certification.
Salman Khan-starrer Sultan too was leaked online on Wednesday, the day of its grand release. Great Grand Masti had to advance its release date from July 22 to July 15 because of the leak.
When Udta Punjab was leaked, speculation was rife that the leak had happened from the CBFC’s end. However, this time no fingers are being pointed at the Board for the Great Grand Masti and Anurag Shrivastava, CEO at CBFC, says it justifies their stance that the leaks don’t happen from their side.
He says, “In the case of 'Udta Punjab', we had explained that the film had come in the form of hard disc in the movie format, shown to us and taken back. At no point was it ever handled by us. The first time it came in our possession was when the certificate was issued and that was at 6pm on the day when it had already been leaked online. As for 'Great Grand Masti', the film came only once to us and that was on January 19. It was shown to us and was refused the certificate (they had ordered several cuts). The film didn’t come to us for revising, the makers went straight to the Tribunal. On March 23 or 24 the Tribunal passed an order (they upturned the cuts ordered by CBFC) and we issued the certificate subsequently on April 1. At the same time we sealed the final version of the DVD, got it signed by the applicant and saved it under lock and key in the record room. There has been no tampering or anything of that sort. I don’t see any way this could have leaked from our side.”
Tell him that the leaked version has the word censor copy written on it and he dismisses it saying it doesn’t mean anything. “The word censor copy is written by the producer only. It is from their side, we don’t do anything like that from our side. In fact, it is not even necessary to be written, but because it’s been a convention they have always been mentioning it,” he says.
He adds that they get 2000 films for certification from Mumbai alone. “Why would we be interested in doing this to two films?” he questions.
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 "Sultan and Great Grand Masti")
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