The Information & Broadcasting Ministry has declined to intervene in the matter relating to the release of Ketan Mehta’s Rang Rasiya — a film reportedly based on the life of renowned painter Raja Ravi Varma — after the Prime Minister’s Office asked it to examine charges that the film allegedly showed the artist in poor light. The Randeep Hooda-Nandana Sen starrer, however, may still not get its November 7 release after a Kerala court decided to restrain its release following a complaint by Varma’s granddaughter alleging that the film projected Varma in poor light. It all started with a letter from Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to Prime Minister Narendra Modi wherein Chandy — enclosing a copy of a complaint submitted by Raja Ravi Varma’s granddaughter — stated that the film was “fraudulently claiming to be based on Raja Ravi Varma’s life”. “It is highly derogatory as it picturises Hon’ble Raja Ravi Varma as a playboy. If the allegations are true, this would be very seriously defamatory to the culture and heritage of Kerala as well as India and would need to be dealt with as such using all possible legal means,” Chandy wrote to the PM. Following this, the PMO asked I&B Ministry to examine it. The ministry found that the movie had been cleared by Censor Board with an ‘A’ certification five years ago and that its release had got delayed because of distribution-related issues. Realising that there were no reasonable grounds to either “recall” the movie or force a re-release with more cuts, the ministry is learnt to have declined to intervene in the matter and has conveyed this to the PMO. The film’s makers, sources said, had decided to include a disclaimer saying it is “not anybody’s true life story”.
