Udta Punjab

Udta Punjab
Film poster
Directed by	Abhishek Chaubey
Written by	Sudip Sharma (Dialogues)
Screenplay by	Sudip Sharma Abhishek Chaubey
Story by	Sudip Sharma Abhishek Chaubey
Produced by	Shobha Kapoor Ekta Kapoor Anurag Kashyap Vikramaditya Motwane Aman Gill Vikas Bahl Sameer Nair
Starring	Shahid Kapoor Alia Bhatt kareena kapoor Diljit Dosanjh
Cinematography	Rajeev Ravi
Edited by	Meghna Sen
Music by	Original Songs: Amit Trivedi Background Score: Benedict Taylor Naren Chandavarkar
Production companies	Balaji Motion Pictures Phantom Films
Distributed by	Balaji Motion Pictures
Release date	17 June 2016 (2016-06-17)
Running time	149 Minutes
Country	India
Languages	Hindi Punjabi

Udta Punjab (Template:Lang-en) is an upcoming Indian crime thriller film co-written and directed by Abhishek Chaubey. It is based on drug abuse in the Indian state of Punjab. Produced by Shobha Kapoor and Ekta Kapoor under their banner Balaji Motion Pictures, in association with Phantom Films, it features Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, and Diljit Dosanjh in the lead roles. The film is scheduled to release on 17 June 2016.

On 4 June 2016, the Central Board of Film Certification sought a stay on the film's release citing that the themes dealt with in the film were too mature for the general audience. As a result, the producers were directed to make a total of 89 cuts in the film. However, on 13 June 2016, the Bombay High Court struck down the stay and gave permission for the film's national release, albeit with a single cut in the screenplay.

Premise

The film highlights the impact and menace of drug abuse on society. The film is made to spread awareness about drugs on youth and society in general. It ends with Kareena Kapoor dying as she was stabbed by the drug addict brother of her love interest in the movie (Diljit Dosanjh) and Alia Bhatt escaping the clutches of prostitution and drug abuse by her captives, with the help of Shahid, and they vacation in Goa.

Cast

• Shahid Kapoor as Tommy Singh
• Kareena Kapoor Khan as Dr. Preet Sahni
• Alia Bhatt as Mary Jane
• Diljit Dosanjh as Sartaj Singh
• Satish Kaushik as Tayaji
• Prabhjyot Singh as Bali
• Harpreet Singh as Samsheer
• Ishaan Khattar

Planning and shooting

Principal photography of the film commenced in March 2015, Three of the actors Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor and Alia Bhatt halved their fees for the film. Shahid Kapoor will be playing the role of a Rockstar and Alia in the role of a Bihari Migrant.

Music

Untitled

The music for Udta Punjab was composed by Amit Trivedi with lyrics by the late Shiv Kumar Batalvi, Shellee and Varun Grover. The background music was composed by Benedict Taylor & Naren Chandavarkar. The music rights are acquired by Zee Music Company.

The first song "Chitta Ve" was released on 4 May 2016. Two more Singles "Da Da Dasse" and "Ik Kudi" were released before the Release of Final soundtrack. The Complete Soundtrack consisting of 7 songs was released on 18 May 2016.

Track listing

All music is composed by Amit Trivedi

Original Track Listing

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Chitta Ve"	Shellee	Babu Haabi, Shahid Mallya & Bhanu Pratap	4:48
2.	"Da Da Dasse"	Amit Trivedi	Kanika Kapoor & Babu Haabi	4:01
3.	"Ikk Kudi"	Late Shiv Kumar Batalvi	Shahid Mallya	4:35
4.	"Ud-Daa Punjab"	Varun Grover	Vishal Dadlani & Amit Trivedi	4:35
5.	"Hass Nach Le"	Shellee	Shahid Mallya (Backing Vocals: Shadab Faridi, Suhas Sawant & Arun Kamath)	4:30
6.	"Vadiya"	Shellee	Amit Trivedi	4:29
7.	"Ikk Kudi - Reprised Version"	Late Shri Shiv Kumar Batalvi	Diljit Dosanjh	2:44
Total length:				26:29

Production

Amit Trivedi said about the soundtrack, "The film required a really dark soundtrack. So, I had to incorporate psychedelic trance and hip hop into it. It will be edgier and more in-your-face than anything else seen in Bollywood music before. I don't know how the audience will react to it because it is not something that we are used to. But I do know that there are people who have an appetite for psy-trance and hip hop in India. So, I hope it is received well". The movie's music rights were sold for ₹18 crore (US$2.2 million), making it the biggest such deal in Bollywood history.

Release

The movie has been reported to have had issues with the censor board over profanities and scenes of drug use. On 9 June 2016, the Censor Board came out with a list of 94 cuts and 13 pointers prior to the film's release. One of the pointers even included deleting the names of cities in Punjab. On 13 June 2016, Bombay High Court cleared Udta Punjab with one cut and disclaimers. The scene where Shahid Kapoor's character Tommy Singh is shown urinating in front of a crowd needs to be chopped off, ruled the court. The CBFC has been directed to issue an 'A' certificate to Udta Punjab in two days.The film was released in an online leak on 15th June 2016. The uncut version or the censor copy was downloaded on torrent websites like piratebay, eutorrentz, kickass and download platforms such as Rapidshare & arabloads. The interesting part is that the leaked uncut version had Shahid Kapoor urinating on the audience scene intact.

Controversies

The row over the film being drug-themed slated for release on June 17 escalated with co-producer Anurag Kashyap hitting out at Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani, calling him "oligarch" and "dictator" and that it was like living in North Korea. The makers of the film are said to have been asked by the Revising Committee of the Censor Board to remove all references to Punjab and to make 89 cuts. Kashyap got the support of several filmmakers including Karan Johar, Mahesh Bhatt, Ram Gopal Varma, Aamir Khan, Imtiaz Ali, Varun Dhawan and Mukesh Bhatt. "It is a dark day for freedom of expression and creativity in the country," Mukesh Bhatt said, calling Pahlaj Nihalani a "stooge" of the government. It was finally cleared by bombay high court with the cuts reduced from 89 to 1 in which Tommy Singh aka Shahid Kapoor was seen urinating. 'A' certificate was given and scheduled release is expected.

Online piracy issue

On 15 June 2016, some parts of the film were leaked online onto various peer-to-peer sharing websites. While some torrent sites hosted a forty-minute clip, the whole film was also uploaded on other BitTorrent sites. Indiatimes.com reported that the leaked clips contained the text "FOR CENSOR" on the top-left corner, implying that the leaked copies were part of the samples shared with the Censor Board. However, according to NDTV, the producers of the film had managed to remove the copies from various sites like Kickass Torrents and The Pirate Bay.

External links

• Udta Punjab at IMDb
• Udta Punjab at Bollywood Hungama