Deepa Mehta blames RSS: Shooting only after Govt. clearance

ALLAHABAD, JAN. 31. The Varanasi District Magistrate, Mr. Alok Kumar, today said that the shooting of Ms. Deepa Mehta's controversial film, ``Water'', could not begin until the State Government gave further instructions.

Asked when the film's unit would be allowed to commence shooting, he said he could not take any decision on his own. The district administration had taken all measures to maintain law and order in Varanasi and to protect the film unit and equipment, he added. The police registered an FIR. However, no arrests had been made so far.

Mr. Kumar's remarks came a day after protesters damaged the sets put up on the banks of the Ganga in Varanasi forcing the authorities to cancel the shooting.

Ms. Mehta alleged that the incident was the ``handiwork of the cultural wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh as it objected to the film script. But I had not expected so much violence''.

Ms. Mehta said if the shooting was not allowed, it would mean ``a major financial loss to us as our unit has been camping in Varanasi for the past month''.

Ms. Nandita Das, one of the lead characters, said, ``I am very sad about the demonstrations by the local people against the shooting of the film.'' She is to play a young widow resisting attempts to physically abuse her in a ``widow ashram'' in Varanasi of the Thirties.

Pointing out that all legal formalities about the script of ``Water'', last part of Ms. Mehta's trilogy on the elements after ``Fire'' and ``1947-Earth'', had been completed before the shooting, she said the agitation was ``unwarranted''.

Alleging that the demonstrations were the ``handiwork of some vested interests'' she said the people should allow the director to begin shooting and see the movie themselves before arriving at any conclusion about its motive.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Shiv Sena, the BJP and several socio-cultural groups in Varanasi have decided to foil the shooting alleging that the film denigrated the country's image and culture.

Ms. Das said Ms. Deepa Mehta did make efforts through the press to convince the local people that the script did not contain any remarks disparaging Indian culture. But it was not possible to satisfy every individual.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued in New Delhi, the All-India Democratic Women's Association general secretary, Ms. Brinda Karat, strongly condemned the ``BJP-led assault'' on the film crew and demanded the arrest of those involved.

The ruling party, she said, sought to impose its ``narrow homogenised Hindutva outlook on all sections of society including artists and intellectuals''.

The BJP, she alleged, was least concerned at the terrible plight of poor Hindu widows and said that the AIDWA would organise protests in Varanasi and Lucknow.

In Lucknow, the Jan Sanskriti Manch condemned the State Government for Sunday's violence on the sets.

The Manch vice-president, Mr. Ajay Singh, in a statement alleged that the attack was launched at the ``behest of the RSS, the BJP and the Bajrang Dal.''

The incidents of violence and arson in Varanasi were part of the RSS' fascist agenda, he said and demanded immediate arrest of those involved in the incidents and lifting of the ban on the shooting.

- PTI, UNI

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