Kites flies into the eye of despair in Bangalore

Bangalore: The much awaited Bollywood movie of the year, Kites, has landed in a controversy on the eve of its release. Late on Thursday evening, the Karnataka Film Camber of Commerce (KFCC) slapped a ban on the Hrithik Roshan-Barbara Mori starrer’s release scheduled for Friday, claiming that it was in violation of the guidelines set for the screening of other language films and would affect the business of Kannada movies.

The chamber’s announcement that the movie would not be released in Karnataka as scheduled, left thousands of fans disappointed. However, the lack of confirmation from the exhibitors and distributors on whether the film would be released or not added an element of confusion to the drama.

Hundreds of fans who had booked their tickets for the film did not know what would happen to their tickets and whether they would indeed be able to see the film that they had been waiting to watch with so much expectation. DNA spoke to a few fans to gauge the mood in the city.

“It is not right to suddenly cancel the movie just before the day it is to release. A decision to ban such a big banner movie cannot be unilateral,” said Nikhil D, a software professional.

Though most fans were disappointed over the scrapping of the release, a few of them said that the ban did not affect them in a big way. “It makes no difference to me as I had no expectations from this movie. I thought of watching it sometime after the release and was not keen on watching it on the first day of its release,” said Suhas R, a student.

However, there were several others who were angry with the development. “In a city which is considered cosmopolitan, such a cancellation of another language film is not a good development. There is a huge audience for English and Hindi movies in Bangalore and feelings of this section of the society should be considered,” said Tarun Mohan.

Kruthika K Murthy, a student, said, “I am not disappointed; but the reasoning behind banning the movie has left me frustrated. This is absolute nonsense. If a movie is good, no matter what language it is made in, people will continue to watch it. What counts is whether a cinema is good or not. It’s language makes no difference.”

However, the fans are expecting that the controversy would be settled soon. They feel that it was a matter of time before the film was released. “I had lots of expectations from the movie, and had planned to watch it on the first day of its release. Now that it is not being showed as per schedule, I expect the movie to be released very soon. I will watch it whenever it hits the screen,” said Arvind S, a professor.

When DNA tried contacting the multiplexes and theatres where Kites was to release, to know whether they would abide by the chamber directive or not, they were either not available or were reluctant to comment. Repeated queries on how they planned to refund the tickets for which advance bookings had been made, also were greeted with silence.