There has been a long history of cinema falling prey to mobocracy aka extraconstitutional or extralegal censorship. Rahul Dholakia’s Parzania (2005), based on 2002 Gujarat riots, was obstructed by goons at the Goa film festival. The screening of Rakesh Sharma’s Final Solution (2004), on the Gujarat riots, was obstructed at Jawaharlal Nehru University by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activists and by the Hindu Jagran Manch at a film festival in Bangalore. Opportunistic organisations like Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association and Cinema Owners and Exhibitors Association of India followed suit without pausing and thinking things through. No wonder the Pakistani classic Jago Hua Savera got dropped from Jio MAMI 18th Mumbai Film Festival with Star on a complaint by a city-based organisation, Sangharsh.

Source: The Hindu October 19, 2016 19:41 UTC