The Supreme Court has refused to lift the ban on the release of Vivek Oberoi’s biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, upholding the ban imposed by the Election Commission (EC). As a result, the biopic PM Narendra Modi will not be released before May 19.
Supreme Court refuses to interfere with the Election Commission order banning release of biopic ‘PM Narendra Modi’. pic.twitter.com/ZwYRzncZnx
— ANI (@ANI) April 26, 2019
Refusing to interfere with the decision of the Election Commission, a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said that it was not inclined to entertain the application filed by the producers of the movie. The producers had argued that the order of the Election Commission banning the release of the biopic is contrary to the clearance given by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).
The Election Commission had stalled the release of the movie saying that the movie was likely to tilt the balance in favour of a political party thereby disturbing the level playing field. The EC further termed the movie as eulogising a political representative and showing the opposition parties in a bad light. “This can be categorised as hagiography,” the EC had said in its response submitted before the SC. The film was watched by senior officers of the poll panel on April 17.
The Court had asked the EC to watch the movie and file a report citing the objections it has with it. The commission had filed the report yesterday after watching the movie, in which they had cited 17 dialogues as a reason for banning the movie during elections. The EC had told the Supreme Court that PM Narendra Modi is not only a biopic, but the movie has dialogues, symbols, and presentation that “eulogises a public representative”.
The movie was earlier set to release on April 11 but it was stayed from releasing by the Election Commission for the violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). On April 9 the Supreme Court had given its approval for the release of the movie by refusing to stay its release, but the court had left it upon the Election Commission to see if the movie violates the Model Code of Conduct.
