Mehta goes from Ganga to Narmada

According to a report from Khargone, district collector Bhupal Singh said security arrangements would be made at the shooting sites to ensure the safety of the film’s crew.

Singh is learnt to have not only given the permission to shoot the film, but has also assured full security to the unit.

However, VHP vice-president Giriraj Kishore said in Jaipur today that the VHP would disclose its next course of action only after February 20. He said the VHP continues to oppose Wateras a matter of principle. Digvijay seems to have taken the BJP camp off-guard. “At least the CM should have called the opposition leaders and let them read the film’s script,” was the complaint of Dr Gauri Shankar Shejwar, Leader of Opposition in the MP Assembly.

Meanwhile, in a crowded press meet by Mehta and the film’s cast in New Delhi, actress Shabana Azmi said it was “clear that Uttar Pradesh was run by the VHP, and not the BJP, and it is Ashok Singhal, and not the Prime Minister, whose writ runs there.”

She was sorry that there was no respect in the state for the writ of the Centre, which had cleared the script. Mehta said it was clear that Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta was not very supportive from the very beginning. She also alleged that an individual who had sought the distribution rights of the film from her had threatened that she would not be able to shoot her film in the state. Actor Akshay Kumar and actress Nandita Das were also present at the press meet.

Akshay said he was a Hinduand he would not have agreed to do the film if it had contained anything against the religion. Das said India’s image had suffered rather than the film’s as alleged by Sangh Parivar outfits. “It is indeed shameful for the country that the shooting of the film, which depicts the plight of widows, is not being allowed at the behest of a handful of people who claim to be custodians of Indian culture,” Das said in Varanasi a day before leaving the city.