Director cuts Bhaag Milkha Bhaag by 30 mins for global release

Director-producer Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra has shortened “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag” (BMB) for its international release. He has reduced the playing-time of the biopic by 30 minutes and said the new version is suitable for a no-interval format. [caption id=“attachment_1042523” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Poster for Bhaag Milkha Bhaag: Facebook[/caption] Since there were no clearly demarcated areas in the narration that could be pruned down, and the songs carried the plot forward, Mehra and the film’s editor PS Bharathi went through the process of looking through the entire footage to zero-in on individual shots and scenes where conversations could be cut. An arduous and challenging task – but the job is now done. The decision comes as a surprise considering Mehra maintained that the story had to be told within the time-frame afforded by the script. Said Mehra: “Bharathi and I haven’t forced cuts into the narration. We wanted to bring the length down to a no-interval format, since there is no tradition of breaking a film into two halves in the West. To eliminate the interval-point for the international version, we had to re-edit the film.” At the home front, the film opened to positive responses and Farhan Akhtar’s portrayal of Milkha was greatly praised. The film raked in approximately Rs.55 crore in its first week. IANS