Ketan Mehta's 'Rang Rasiya' to release in February 2012

Lying in the cans for over three years, Ketan Mehta's historical saga Rang Rasiya will finally hit theatres in February 2012.

"A lot of courage was needed on our part to make this film. Similarly, we needed a courageous distributor too. Finally we have found him and the film will be released in February now," Mehta told reporters in Kolkata.

The distributors were so far afraid of the content of the film, which takes artistic liberty in portraying nudity and upholds freedom of art and expression.

"Since it was shot at various locations right from Kerala to Varanasi, the film is a very expensive one. And that was another problem in finding the right distributor as many were hesitant," said the filmmaker whose last release was the 2005 Aamir Khan starrer Mangal Pandey: The Rising.

Ready since 2008, the film had not released in cinema halls due to a dispute between Mehta and the distributors.

The Censor Board had also once objected to topless scenes of Nandana Sen, who plays muse to 19th century painter Raja Ravi Varma, played by Randeep Hooda.

"The Censor Board has now cleared the film without any cuts," Mehta said.

He rejected suggestions that due to a delay in release the film will look outdated and affect the box-office results of his ambitious project. "What happened to Raja Ravi Varma hundred years ago also happens today. The best example is that of MF Hussain. The great Indian artist was hounded, persecuted, prosecuted and thrown out of the country because of his art. The film therefore will never lose its relevance," Mehta said.

Rang Rasiya has travelled to festivals the world over including Cannes, London, New York and Florence. It got a standing ovation at the Chicago Film Festival last month and was voted as the Best Film this summer in the London Film Festival.

It was screened at an overcrowded theatre at the ongoing Kolkata Film Festival (KFF) on Tuesday.

The director, however, refuses to call the film a biopic.

"This is not a biopic or a painter's biography made into a film. You cannot condense Varma's life into a two-hour film," he said adding that he chose to focus on the role Sugandha, the muse, plays in the artist's life.

It is more about the period in his life when there was a climate of intolerance surrounding his timeless pieces of art.

Mehta's first encounter with the painter was years ago when as a film student he learned about Varma's immense contribution to Indian cinema.

"The entire imagery of early Indian cinema is drawn from his works. Even Dadasaheb Phalke, known as the Father of Indian cinema, started as an apprentice with Varma," he pointed out.

Mehta is best known for films like Mirch Masala (1985), Maya Memsaab (1992), Sardar (1993) and Hero Hiralal (1988).