Controversial Punjabi film, Kaum De Heere, based on former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassins was released on Youtube on Friday despite ban by the Central Government.
The full movie was uploaded by the ‘Fateh Online’ Youtube channel, giving two separate links. However, both the links were removed later on. The film unit has denied uploading the movie.
The movie was stayed for release a day before it was scheduled to hit the theatres on August 22 citing “highly objectionable” content by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
The MHA, in a communication to the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B Ministry), had maintained that the film may affect the communal harmony in Punjab and other northern States.
The Ministry had also pointed that some of the content of the film was highly objectionable and may create enmity between communities and lead to communal tension.
The film, which is reportedly based on the lives of the assassins of the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi — Beant Singh, Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh — reportedly glorifies their act.
Earlier, the MHA had asked the I&B Ministry to review censor clearance to the controversial film.
The development assumes significance as the Central Intelligence Agencies and also that of Punjab are already tracking the source of funds that went into the making of the film. The agencies are, in fact, identifying if any money has come from the Khalistan sympathizers.
IB sources have hinted that the funds for the film and others based on similar themes may have come from Canada and Europe.
Already the IB had questioned the film producer Satish Katyal in this regard who had maintained that the money used for the movie was from his real estate ventures.
It has been suspected that the movie was uploaded on the Youtube from outside India.
The movie is also under the scanner of the Central Bureau of Investigation in the wake of allegations that its makers had paid bribes to the film censorship board to get screening permission, after being denied in January this year.
Board’s chief executive officer (CEO) Rakesh Kumar, who was arrested by the CBI on the charges of charging film-makers to give them clearances, revealed during his interrogation that he got Rs one lakh as bribe from the makers of the film before he cleared it with an ‘Adults’ certificate on May 29 — something categorically denied by the makers of the film.
Home Ministry had earlier sought clarifications on whether the makers of the film are among a group of producers who allegedly bribed the head of the censorship board to get clearances for screening.
Kaum De Heere (Diamonds of the Community) is a story based on Indira Gandhi’s Sikh bodyguards who shot her in 1984 in revenge for Operation Bluestar which saw soldiers entering the Golden Temple, Sikhism’s most holy shrine, to flush out militants holed up there.
While Beant Singh was killed by the police shortly after the assassination, Satwant Singh was hanged later. It is believed that the depiction of Indira Gandhi’s killers as “diamonds” of the Sikh community in the film had sparked protests.
Justifying, the film makers had maintained that the film is based on true incidents, as per the findings of the Justice Thakkar Commission which had probed the assassination of Gandhi. They contended that the movie was released at other places and nothing happened there.