This is the real reason why Censor Board, Defense Ministry had issues with 'Aiyaary'
Aiyaary
Aiyaary was slated to release on Feb 9 clashing with PadMan but owing to non-issuance of certificate from CBFC, the movie postponed its release to Feb 16
Bollywood can easily call this year as the year of 'postponing release dates' with another classic case of upcoming movie Aiyaary starring Sidharth Malhotra and Manoj Bajpayee as Army officials in a defence-drama getting postponed twice.
The movie was originally planned to release on January 26, then shifted to February 9 (as Padmaavat announced its release on Jan 25), which finally shifted to February 16 as CBFC delayed the process of issuing the release certificate to the film.
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The second shift in dates resulted due to CBFC's hesitation in issuing a certificate without Defense Ministry's nod ina curious case. As the movie is set against the backdrop of the Indian Army, it looks like the Censor Board played safe to ensure the Ministry was okay with the film and thus showed it to them for a go-ahead.
The real reason behind this has now been revealed: As per a report in a Mumbai-based newspaper, the film shows a real-life scam surrounding the army and the government -- something that bothered both the Censor Board and Ministry of Defense. Dealing with corruption in certain sections of the army, the movie takes inspiration for one of its subplots from the real-life land scam of the Adarsh Housing Society,located in Colaba are of Mumbai.
In the film, there are scenes whereSidharth Malhotra and Pooja Chopra's characters are heard referring to a plot in 'Colaba'. Naseeruddin Shah's (who has a cameo in the movie) character is linked to this subplot, where he is playing the watchman of the said plot. He mentions that the property reserved for widows of martyred soldiers will be taken over by politicians. This is what happened in real life as well in 2010 when the scam was revealed and several top brass officials and politicians were investigated.
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The CBI is currently investigating the claim. It led to the resignation of thenMaharashtra CM Ashok Chavan, while the late Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde and Shivajirao Nilangekar Patil, two former urban development ministers, Rajesh Tope and Sunil Tatkare, were all named in the scam.
As of now, Aiyaary received its certificate on February 7 and will continue to release on February 16.
As for the cuts suggested by the Censor Board, a source close to the film said in the report:“The filmmakers were glad they didn’t ask for too many, there were just four minor changes which were carried out to everyone’s satisfaction.”
Aiyaary is directed by Neeraj Pandey andstars Sidharth Malhotra, Manoj Bajpayee, Rakul Preet Singh, Kumud Mishra, Adil Hussain and Anupam Kher.