CBFC asks director of film on pharma companies to remove 'inspired by real incidents' claim

Mumbai: Rajat S Mukherjee, who is making his directorial debut with Umeed, is upset with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for asking him to remove “inspired by real incidents” claim from the film. [caption id=“attachment_4088227” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A still from Umeed. Youtube screengrab[/caption] He feels CBFC remains “irresponsible” even after the appointment of lyricist Prasoon Joshi as its new chairman. The film, which was earlier supposed to release on 22 September, is based on unethical drug trials in India. “It’s absolutely ridiculousness how we have been asked to remove ‘inspired by real incidents’ from the film. I have spent years in research on this subject. We will not release the film with ‘A’ certificate which conveys truth about pharma companies,” Mukherjee said in a statement. “What’s upsetting us is that CBFC is still irresponsible even after Prasoon Joshi took the charge,” Mukherjee added. Told through the perspective of its protagonist Mia (Pallavi Das), Umeed shows how pharma giants use celebrities to give “unethical clinical trials” a mask of vaccination programmes. Besides Pallavi, the film also features Milind Gunaji, Dalip Tahil, Freddy Daruwala and Shishir Sharma.