Ketan Mehta: Am controversy’s child

Director Ketan Mehta’s upcoming venture “Manjhi- The Mountain Man” had courted controversy – over the rights to making it – like many of his earlier films and he thinks that he is controversy’s child.

“I think I’m a child of controversy. Controversies seek me out… I don’t seek them out,” said Mehta at the trailer launch of the movie.

“On the last day of shooting we receive a legal notice where someone was claiming to have the exclusive right to make a film on the ‘Mountain Man’ Dashrath Manjhi’s life. We are told that that Manjhi had put his thumb impression (on documents) four days before his death in an ICU. It was a complete fraud case. And we had to fight it in Patna from a small court, district court then from a high court and we finally won the case and that’s how the film is now ready to release.”

Controversies are not new to Mehta as several people had raised objections to the portrayal of artist Raja Ravi Varma in his last release “Rang Rasiya” and he reveals that it took five years to get clearance from the Censor Board.

As far as “Mangal Pandey: The Rising” was concerned, political parties like Bhartiya Janata Party and Samajwadi Party had objected to the characterization of Pandey.

“Maya Memsaab” also had run-ins with the Censor Board for a steamy lovemaking scene between Shah Rukh Khan and Deepa Sahi which was later removed. This scene had resurfaced on the internet a few years back and had gone viral.

His latest film, which stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte, will release on August 21.

Inputs by IANS