24th March, Mumbai: A new trailer for Bheed was released, completely deleting the previous one, which had a voiceover from Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing the lockdown and images of migrant workers being abused by police.
Anubhav Sinha, the director, believes that it is best for him to concentrate on the plot of his upcoming movie Bheed rather than the controversy around it. The drama with a pandemic setting has stirred divisive debate ever since the first trailer for the movie was released.
During the Covid-induced lockdown of 2020, when thousands of migrant labourers returned to their home towns from cities, Bheed details the plight of migrants.
The teaser made comparisons to the atrocities of Partition by contrasting the ominous photos from 1947 with the sorrowful sights of 2020 lockdown, all accompanied by the stirring voiceover, “Ek baar phir hua tha batwara, 2020 mein (The Partition happened once more, in 2020).”
The film was dubbed “anti-India” in a part on Twitter due to the film’s visual component, which caused a stir. Bhushan Kumar, a producer and a presenter, reportedly distanced himself from Bheed shortly after, and the moniker T-Series vanished from posters and social media tags. Even the film’s trailer, which had an audio clip of Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing the lockdown and images of migrant workers being beaten up by police, was changed to a new one, removing the old audio clip entirely. Sinha responded, “There are more modifications in the trailer, but this makes more news for you,” when asked why PM Modi’s voiceover was taken out of the new trailer. When told that it was the largest change, Sinha nodded in agreement but continued, “Every film faces different difficulties.” I intended to utilise a poem by Amrita Pritam in Thappad. One day before the movie’s release, I had to modify it because I couldn’t utilise it.
Why didn’t it matter to anyone? Have you asked me? I had to spend the night writing a poem and lip-syncing it to a Punjabi song. Kumud Mishra was doing the dubbing from Mumbai while I was in Delhi. I had to create a poem to go with Amrita Pritam’s Punjabi lip synchronization! Not this story (removal of PM Modi’s voice over), which is interesting. Let’s discuss the tale of Bheed. I don’t want to take attention away from Bheed’s narrative because it’s much more intriguing. With its conscious recollection of the terrible division, the teaser for Bheed also led some online users to believe that it was trying to sensationalise the tragedy. Sinha, though, asserted that he doesn’t take the sentiments expressed on Twitter seriously. “Who are those individuals? Using Twitter? Although a lot of it is, the internet is not a farce. Everyone has an opinion. Similar to how people congregate around pan stores in small towns, a lot of these talks take place on Twitter. Not this story (removal of PM Modi’s voice over), which is interesting. Let’s discuss the tale of Bheed. I don’t want to take attention away from Bheed’s narrative because it’s much more intriguing. With its conscious recollection of the terrible division, the teaser for Bheed also led some online users to believe that it was trying to sensationalise the tragedy. Sinha, though, asserted that he doesn’t take the sentiments expressed on Twitter seriously. Who are those individuals? Using Twitter? Although a lot of it is, the internet is not a farce. Everyone has an opinion. Similar to how people congregate around pan stores in small towns, a lot of these talks take place on Twitter.
The viewpoint in the teaser is what caused that response. When you observe a black patch on the road, it can resemble coal tar or poop. Your perspective is how it is, and your viewpoint is always practical. These things take place whenever the opposing perspective is unfavourable.
Rajkummar Rao, Bhumi Pednekar, Dia Mirza, Pankaj Kapur, Ashutosh Rana, Kritika Kamra, and Kumud Mishra are all featured in the movie Bheed. The movie is slated to come out on March 24.