Balaji Telefilms' Udta Punjab gets Bombay High Court nod

Balaji Telefilms, a media and entertainment company surged more than 2 per cent on Monday due to High Court’s verdict for releasing the much talked about film, Udta Punjab. The negative publicity has paid off for the most awaited film, and it is set to hit the box office on June 17 with minor changes.

One of the producers of the film is Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor’s Balaji Motion Pictures, a subsidiary of Balaji Telefilms. High court has ordered only one cut in the film out of 13 suggested by the censor board under ‘A’ category stating that Udta Punjab does not question the "sovereignty or integrity" of India.

Earlier Balaji Telefilms was to take up the cuts suggested by the censor board and accept those before releasing but another producer Phantom Films wanted to put up a long battle. Balaji Telefilms once also thought of backing out.

Udta Punjab is a crime thriller film based on drugs; but does not promote drugs is what the high court has stated.  The court has also overruled the objection of censor board in including the names of Punjab and other cities of the country.

The music rights of Udta Punjab have been sold at Rs 18 crore, which is a record breaker, surpassing Rs 17 crore of ‘Prem Ratan Dhan Payo’. The multi starrer film is all set for a 100 crore business.

Pahlaj Nihalani, the chief of Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC) was reminded by the high court that his job was limited to certify the films and not censor those.