Goa panel delaying viewing of 'Dum Maaro Dum': Distributors

Panaji, April 18 (IANS) A high-level panel set up by the Goa government for the pre-release screening of "Dum Maaro Dum", which the government apprehends portrays the state negatively, is delaying viewing the film, the film's distributors said Monday.

Speaking to reporters outside the Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court here, Fox Star Studio International Private Limited official Dina Dattani said the members of the screening committee had not given them a commitment on organising a viewing of the film.

"We had communicated to the committee members that the decision on the screening could be taken only after the court verdict. Some of the committee members have told us that they are not together (in one place) as some of them are travelling to Delhi," she said.

"We will seek a proper date with them and screen (the film) for them but screening today seems impossible. We are having a press preview on Wednesday and a special show for the star cast on Thursday, before the release on Friday this week," Dattani added.

The committee headed by state information secretary Rajiv Verma also comprises Goa State Women's Commission chairperson Ezilda Sapeco, Inspector General of Police Sundari Nanda, other bureaucrats and the editor of a local English news daily.

"There are apprehensions that the film has several objectionable things in it. I have asked the committee to go through the film," Chief Minister Digambar Kamat had said, after instituting the committee last week.

The Bombay High Court has already cleared the decks for the release of the film, after it disposed a petition Monday, seeking a ban on the film's release.

The Rohan Sippy-directed "Dum Maaro Dum" has stirred controversy in Goa after women's groups and a section of the Goan intelligensia claimed that the film portrayed Goans, especially Goan women, vulgarly, and that it depicted a negative image of the state.

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