Lipstick Under My Burkha director Alankrita Shrivastava has been through a lot to ensure her film makes it to the big screen. The award winning film-maker’s tussle with the Censor Board has been a long one, with the Board even refusing to certify it as it was “too lady-oriented”. In a free-wheeling interview with IANS Alankrita says: “We are reaching a crisis point. We have to decide, as citizens of India in 2017, whether we want to claim our freedom and live in a free and democratic country or live with this guardianship.”
“I think time is up on censorship and we need to bid it a proper and clear goodbye. We need to get into a process which is much more matter of fact in certification. Censorship is not something new in India. We have been living with censorship for decades. Censorship is coming to sharp focus now, because there are many more independent films being made which are international in nature,” she adds.
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The director feels that as a citizen of this democratic country, she should be able to make whatever film she wants to. “I see people from other free countries making whatever they like.” Talking about the reality the film reflects, the writer-director says: “There are young people in our country and they are just being who they want to be, but in hiding. This is what the film is about, they can do what they want but they can’t do it openly.”
Alankrita hopes people go to the theatres, enjoy the film and engage with it.
The movie releases on July 21 and stars Konkana Sen Sharma, Ratna Pathak Shah, Plabita Borthakur and Aahana Kumra.
Pic: The Reel