Ever since Pahlaj Nihalani has been sacked from the post of CBFC’s chairperson, he has been a lot of discussions. All the media houses have been approaching him for the interviews and even Pahlaj is saying what he never said earlier.
In a recent interview with Lehren while talking with senior journalist Bharati Pradhan he gave some explosive statements. He told that he was sacked for not following the orders of Smriti Irani for clearing Madhur Bhandarkar’s Indu Sarkar.
He said-
“At the I&B Ministry, I was their target number 1. It all started when I didn’t clear Madhur Bhandarkar’s Indu Sarkar. She gave me a call asking why I hadn’t done so. I said, I was following guidelines and now the film is already with the Tribunal. I told her if she wants she can get it cleared from the Tribunal. I wasn’t massaging her ego and it was only a matter of time before I was thrown out.”
This was not the end as he revealed a lot more. Talking about the Udta Punjab controversy he told that he was under pressure of Ministry for not clearing the film.
He said-
“There was pressure from every side to not clear the film but I cleared it with 70 cuts as per the guidelines. Later, Bombay High Court allowed the film release with 1 cut.
Pahlaj Nihalani even went on to reveal that Home Ministry didn’t want to release Bajrangi Bhaijaan on Eid as they thought it may generate communal riots. He said that he still stood by the makers and cleared the film.
“I knew the story. It wasn’t what they feared. There was miscommunication. I stood by the makers. Yet I was made out to be the villain. Such is the industry.”
He then went on to call Kabir Khan useless and said he always spoke against him despite me standing on his side during Bajrangi Bhaijaan issue.
Watch the full interview:
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1c8MLHZp3c[/yt]
You can also watch the video here.
After watching the interview and listening to his side of the story it seems that he was not that bad as he made out to be. What do you think?