Accord over `Water'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB.2. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting today cleared Ms. Deepa Mehta's film ``Water'' after the director agreed to make some changes in the script to mollify the groups which had disrupted the shooting in Varanasi saying it hurt Hindu sentiments. The Centre's decision was conveyed to the Uttar Pradesh Government and a relieved Ms. Mehta hoped there would be no more disruption.

The compromise came at a meeting she had with the I&B Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley, here soon after he returned from a foreign tour. After the meeting, Ms. Mehta said she had agreed to drop some words from the script as they had been ``misinterpreted'' to give them a meaning wich had ``never been intended.''

``The Ministry has, after consideration of my request and script, granted me an approval for the script submitted by me with the requisite alterations. I hope this puts an end to the controversy and I can be involved in my only passion that is film making,'' she said in a statement.

Mr. Jaitley described the changes as ``marginal but substantial''.

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