Two days prior to its release, 2.0 has run into trouble with the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) for the alleged portrayal of mobile phones and towers in bad light. In its complaint, the association has mentioned that the movie aims to promote ‘obscurantist and anti-scientific attitude towards mobile phones, towers and mobile services.’
When it came out, the trailer for the movie had hinted at mobiles playing a significant role in the story-line with Akshay Kumar’s villain character mouthing a line that went “everybody who owns a cell phone is guilty of murder.”
There have also been reports that the movie deals with the perils caused to nature by mobile phones – a fact further accentuated by the captions in the movie’s posters that read ‘The world is not just for humans.”
Akshay Kumar @akshaykumar as never seen before!!!! The Dark side!!!! #2point0 #HappyBirthdayAkshayKumar pic.twitter.com/5N1JppPrTI
— Karan Johar (@karanjohar) September 9, 2018
According to an NDTV report, Akshay Kumar plays an ornithologist – someone who specialises in the study of birds. And it is his love for birds that forces him to take up a bird’s form while turning villain. That an eagle-like creature is unleashed onto the city only adds to this theory.
The COAI, in their complaint to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I & B), have accused the filmmakers of “falsely depicting mobile phones and mobile towers as harmful to living creatures and the environment including birds and human beings.”
They’ve requested the CBFC to revoke the certification for the teaser, trailer and the other promotional video and the Tamil language version of the film. The association has also requested that the “exhibition of the movie be suspended until the determination of the instant complaint.”
Jointly written by B Jeyamohan and the movie’s director S Shankar, 2.0 is India’s most expensive movie. The Hindi version of the movie will be distributed by Karan Johar. The advance bookings for the movie have already started.
Watch the trailer here:
