After Satluj, another film is in eye of a storm. Industry is seeking curbs on it
Before the raging controversy surrounding Diljit Dosanjh-starrer Satluj could subside, another film has landed in troubled waters. Satluj faced criticism for what many said was
Before the raging controversy surrounding Diljit Dosanjh-starrer Satluj could subside, another film has landed in troubled waters. Satluj faced criticism for what many said was a "flawed depiction" of Punjab's turbulent years of Khalistani militancy. Now, Shreyas Talpade-Kajal Aggarwa Kitchlul-starrer, The India Story: Slow Poison in Progress, a courtroom drama on food safety and public health, is facing stiff opposition from India's agrochemical industry weeks before its July 24 release. Read Full Story The New Delhi-based Agro Chem Federation of India (ACFI), which says it "represents nearly 85% of the country's agrochemical sector", has written to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to scrutinise the film before certification. ACFI Director General Kalyan Goswami told India Today Digital that the film's teaser contains "misleading and unsubstantiated" claims about pesticides, food safety and Indian agriculture. Goswami said, "The federation is seeking a meeting with CBFC Chairperson Shashi Shekhar Vempati." In Mumbai, a lawyer, Hiranya Pandey, representing Bhavesh Sodha of Agri Business Centre, served a legal notice on the filmmakers — Zee Studios and MIG Production & Studios LLP. The notice served in June sought disclosure of the scientific basis for the teaser's claims. "The filmmakers responded through their advocate on June 30", following which Pandey said he filed a rejoinder with the CBFC on July 9 seeking a personal hearing before certification. Pandey said his client would move the court if the film is released unchanged. "The trailer deploys the derogatory and defamatory label 'Mrityudata' (provider of death) for 'Annadata' (the sustainer and provider of food)," he said. He claimed the filmmakers' reply "admitted" that certain teaser sequences were "symbolic dramatisation" and that they did not assert pesticides were the "sole cause" of cancer. The teaser for The India Story: Slow Poison in Progress, in its teaser, showed several data points in caps in between slides of reports and snippets of food adulteration and use of chemicals in Indian farming. Calling them "India's most shocking truths", the teaser of the film, directed by Cheytan DK, claimed: "We grew poison, not food." The teaser featured text snippets saying that Indians were "fed over 50,000 metric tonnes of pesticides" which "exposed over 200,000,000 (20 crore) people". It also linked agricultural practices to "rising cancer cases", and questioned the safety of "milk and poultry", and described Indian food as "slow poison". The film comes even as carcinogenic chemicals, which get Indian agricultural exports rejected in Europe, continue to be sprayed on Indian farms without checks, even though they are banned in markets of Europe and the Americas. Reporting the same last month, India Today Digital asked, why does the government allow these chemicals to find a place on Indian farms and then reach plates? "As long as agrochemical companies filled their coffers with the corpses of farmers, all was well. But as soon as a film attempted to expose this multi-billion rupee business, the country's pesticide bosses were shocked," Om Prakash, the Editor of Kisan Tak, India Today Digital's sister portal, wrote in his piece on July 9. "The India Story struck at the coffers of the pesticide syndicate, which makes profits of crores.
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