The film D-Day, which was recently awarded U/A certificate by the Censor Board, has come under the scanner for violating norms. The film was screened and awarded a certificate by Kanika Dang, who, besides playing the role of Dawood’s wife in the film, is also a member of the Censor Board. A copy of the certificate (in possession of the The Asian Age) bears Ms Dang’s name, which is a clear conflict of interest.
The guidelines prescribed for the Censor Board members clearly state that they should not have any direct or indirect interest or involvement with the production team. “Even a distant relative of the production team cannot screen the film. But, in this case, Ms Dang awarded the certificate with full confidence, as she shares very cordial terms with CEO Pankaja Thakur,” said a member of the revising committee, who screened the film along with her. He further said, “There are more than 90 members on the Censor Board, but why Ms Dang was the first to get an invite is very clear.” Meanwhile, Ms Thakur rubbished the allegations and said that she did not know about Ms Dang’s involvement with the production team.
An ex-member of the Censor Board, Manoj Dubey, said, “I was a member of the Censor Board for 15 years, and I had never seen such a degradation of the Board.” He slammed the CEO for having a “business motive” with the production houses.
When contacted, Ms Dang said, “My role was edited and I was informed about it. I was not given credit anywhere in the film. Additionally, members are not told in advance which film they are going to watch.” However, contrary to her claims, she has appeared at least twice in the film.
In a reply to an email, producer of the film Monisha Advani admitted that Ms Dang appeared in the film, but those scenes could not be edited as it appeared in the background, while the main actors were engaged in the foreground. She said, “This is not at all a conflict of interest or a possible bias towards our film. If anything, I imagine this could have gone against our interests given her disappointment at being edited/omitted from our film.”