Front page news in the national newspapers — on the eve of a film’s release — is any producer’s dream come true, even if it’s negative and controversial. In fact, Saif Ali Khan’s purported James Bondish thriller Agent Vinod, which hadn’t sparked off much of a buzz in the market, has now scored a double whammy.

First a fracas with fellow diners at a ritzy sushi restaurant, leading to the producer-actor’s arrest and release on bail. And second, the headlines that the film scheduled for release on Friday has been “banned” in Pakistan for its alleged disparaging remarks against the ISI. According to its curiously upbeat-sounding Pakistani distributor, “Any film that shows my country or religion in a bad light will be thrown out.”
The “ban” is a classic case of much ado about nothing, truly. After all, not every Bollywood film is seen theatrically in Pakistan. And if a few limited number of Hindi language films are released there it has been after much hair-splitting and appears to be a largely unilateral trade-centric decision.
In any case, the easy access to Bollywood DVDs — unfortunately mostly pirated — will not prevent Agent Vinod from popping up on the home entertainment screens of Pakistani households.
Paradoxically, the public curiosity has been whetted. In the era of every film’s success dependent on its first weekend collections, now the thriller is in an infinitely superior position. Just in the nick of time, it has made its presence felt on the public radar.
Earlier instances of films which have benefited from controversies that attracted wide media coverage include Rang De Basanti (2006), Fanaa (2006) and My Name is Khan (2010). To be sure, their filmmakers faced unnecessary objections; the silver lining was that each one of the films became talking points throughout the nation. Some earlier cases have been Shahenhsah (1988) which had raised the hackles of the political opponents of its star, Amitabh Bachchan, and the other was the tacky, same-gender-themed Girlfriend (2004) which after protests suddenly sold tickets by the bushel. Similarly, Fire (1996) became a cause scandale although it avoided sensationalism and was intelligently made. Obviously, then, any publicity is profitable publicity.
The Agent Vinod instance also throws up a debate about “political correctness”, or the lack of it, vis-à-vis the portrayal of Indo-Pak relations in the fanciful Bollywood matrix. For decades, there was a time when the Central Board of Censors would not permit an “enemy country” to be identified. Consequently, war films had to mince their words and avoid direct references to the 1962 war against China. Gradually, the clause about films affecting diplomatic relations with other countries, was relaxed so that J.P. Dutta’s Border (1997) and LoC: Kargil (2003) could allude quite clearly to the Indo-Pak conflicts. Undoubtedly, it makes sense for a filmmaker to state his point of view with clarity instead of beating around the censorship bush.
Whether a viewer agrees with a filmmaker’s take on events inspired by contemporary political relations, is entirely his or her prerogative. At times, the agreement manifests itself in bonanza box-office collections. Gadar (2001), a jingoistic account of a truck driver and his Muslim beloved, was a top moneyspinner. But when its director Anil Sharma sought to repeat the Paki-bashing in the spy thriller Hero: Love Story of a Spy (2003), the outcome tanked. Piquantly, Sharma’s Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyo (2004) is essentially remembered today because one of its actors, Akshay Kumar, refused to mouth dialogue which could hurt the sentiments of the minority community — which incidentally, happens to be a major constituency in the demographics of moviegoing. The stalwart Amar Akbar Anthony director Manmohan Desai had said, “Alienate the Muslims and you reduce your audience by half. They have formed the repeat-audience of all my films.”
Any which way, whether Agent Vinod turns out to be excellent, ugly or bad, it will surely be remembered for inciting a controversy, shaken and stirred.