Friday Release: Dibakar Banerjee's political thriller 'Shanghai'

New Delhi: Dibakar Banerjee's eagerly-awaited political thriller 'Shanghai', releasing Friday, has been awarded a U/A certificate by the Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC), but with a cut.

CBFC CEO Pankaja Thakur refused to dwell on the cut, only saying: "We cleared the film with one cut with a UA certification. Beyond that we saw nothing objectionable in the content."

As for the contentious song 'Bharat mata ki jai', the public suit filed against it in the Delhi High Court by the Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena was rejected on May 6. The court dismissed a plea seeking stay of of the 'Shanghai' release, saying that there was nothing insulting about 'Bharat Mata ki jai'.

Emraan Hashmi, Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechlin and Prosenjit Chatterjee starrer 'Shanghai' is being released on June 8, 2012.
The film is an adaptation of Greek author Vassilis Vassilikos' famous novel 'Z'.
National Award winning Bengali actor Prosenjit Chatterjee plays a dynamic politician in Dibakar Banerjee's 'Shanghai'.
Prosenji's character in the film was written keeping filmmaker Shekhar Kapur in mind. Dibakar asked his team to dig up pictures of how Kapur looked 15 to 20 years back.
Kalki Koechlin plays a student activist in the film named Shalini.
After 'Dev D' and 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara' it is Kalki Koechlin and Abhay Deol's third film together.
Kalki says that she had no time to prepare for the film. She read the script of 'Shanghai' while preparing for her wedding.
As many reports claim, Emraan Hashmi and Abhay Deol tried hard to outshine each other throughout the film.
Emraan Hashmi plays a porn filmmaker in the film and grown a paunch to suit his character.
Lately, a petition has been filed in the Delhi High Court for an interim stay on the release of forthcoming Bollywood film 'Shanghai' until its controversial song 'Bharat Mata ki jai' is removed from the film. Tejinder Bagga of Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena, has filed the petition.
Abhay Deol plays an IAS officer from Tamil Nadu in 'Shanghai'. His character is named TA Krishnan in the film.
To play a Tamilian, Abhay Deol hired a diction coach to help him out throughout the shoot.
While talking about his character lately, Abhay Deol said, "The character that I play is egoistical, short-tempered, he is very reserved and religious person."
Director Dibakar Banerjee's forthcoming film 'Shanghai' has introduced another foreign model to the Indian audiences. British model Scarlett Mellish Wilson has done an item number 'Imported Kamariya' in 'Shanghai'.
Scarlett is not completely unknown to Bollywood as she has already worked with Saif Ali Khan in a TV commercial.
Dibakar said in an interview that Abhay Deol has done a better job than Shah Rukh Khan who played a Tamil game designer, Shekhar Subramaniam in 'Ra.One'.
Director Dibakar Banerjee says that he prefers taking calculated risk. Getting Emraan Hashmi and Abhay Deol together in a film wasn't an easy task for him.
As Dibakar claims Abhay Deol's character is the spine of 'Shanghai'.
Dibakar Banerjee says the basic idea of an item number is to lure the audiences.
Trailers of the upcoming political thriller 'Shanghai' remind the audience of the land acquisition troubles at Singur and Nandigram as well as the promise made by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of turning Kolkata into London, but director Dibakar Banerjee denies any such link.
Dibakar has earlier directed films like 'Khosla Ka Ghosla', 'Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!', 'Dibakar Banerjee'.

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$Friday Release: Political thriller \'Shanghai\'$

Dibakar Banerjee\'s eagerly-awaited film \'Shanghai\' has been awarded a U/A certificate by the Censor Board.

The film has created a good buzz before its release. Be it due to the controversies, or be it due to the good track record of Dibakar Banerjee, the common movie goer has a lot of expectations from the film.

Dibakar's chemistry with Abhay Deol proved successful both critically and commercially. Deol has proved his credibility as an actor in films such as 'Dev D', 'Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye', and 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara'. This time he will be portraying a South Indian IAS officer.

Emraan Hashmi is also on a winning streak these days. After two back to back hits in 'The Dirty Picture' and 'Jannat 2', he will be seen as a porn filmmaker in 'Shanghai'.

Kalki Koechlin and Prosenjit are also playing important characters in the film. They will probably raise the voice of downtrodden against the fast industrialisation process.

The song 'Bharat Mata ki jai' is already in news, while 'Imported kamariya' has also become a chart-buster.

The film is said to be a good take on the urban-rural divide. However, the public reaction could be found only after its release on June 8.(With inputs from IANS)