After Diljit Dosanjh’s historical biography, industry seeks to impose curbs on another upcoming launch- The India Story: Slow Poison in Progress. The Shreyas Talpade, Kajal Aggarwal starrer is a courtroom drama on food safety and public health is currently facing stiff opposition from India’s agrochemical industry weeks before its release.
The New Delhi-based Agro Chem Federation of India (ACFI) citing its contribution in the agrochemical sector of India has written to the CBFC to scrutinize the film before certification. ACFI director according to sources, that the film’s teaser contains “misleading and unsubstantiated” claims about pesticides, food safety and Indian agriculture. Director General Kalyan Goswami said, “The federation is seeking a meeting with CBFC Chairperson Shashi Shekhar Vempati.”
In Mumbai, legal proceedings have also begun. Hiranya Pandey, representing Bhavesh Sodha of Agri Business Centre, served a legal notice on the filmmakers — Zee Studios and MIG Production & Studios LLP. The notice that was served in June sought disclosure of the scientific basis for the claims.
“The filmmakers responded through their advocate on June 30”, following which Pandey said he filed a rejoinder with the CBFC on July 9 seeking a personal hearing before certification. Pandey said his client would move the court if the film is released unchanged. “The trailer deploys the derogatory and defamatory label ‘Mrityudata’ (provider of death) for ‘Annadata’ (the sustainer and provider of food),” he said. He claimed that the filmmakers did accept that certain teaser sequences were “symbolic dramatisation” and that they did not assert pesticides were the “sole cause” of cancer.
In its teaser, The India Story: Slow Poison in Progress showed several data points in cap in between slides of reports and snippets of food adulteration and use of chemicals in Indian farming. Calling them “India’s most shocking truths”, the teaser of the film, directed by Cheytan DK, claimed: “We grew poison, not food.” The teaser featured text snippets saying that Indians were “fed over 50,000 metric tonnes of pesticides” which “exposed over 200,000,000 (20 crore) people”. It also linked agricultural practices to “rising cancer cases”, and questioned the safety of “milk and poultry”, and described Indian food as “slow poison”.
The movie written by Sagar Shinde is directed by Cheytan DK, and will hit the screens on July 24.