Gujarat in The Good Road offends filmmakers

Filmmakers Abhilash Ghoda and Deepak Antani say that The Good Road shows Gujarat in a bad light and anyone who believes that the state is child-prostitution free must oppose the selection of the movie as the Indian official entry to Oscars. Ghoda has also written a letter to the censor board .

Several Gujarati filmmakers including Abhilash Ghoda, Deepak Antani and writer-lyricist Vinay Dave aren't happy with the selection of The Good Road as India's official entry for Oscars because of the concept of the film.

There has been an ongoing debate over the film ever since The Good Road was selected as India's official Oscar entry by the jury. Several people who loved The Lunchbox took to Twitter to vent out their feelings - even people who hadn't watched The Good Road.

Now, Gujarati filmmaker Abhilash Dave has invited the youth from his Facebook account to join him in the mission "Stop The Good Road for Oscar".

Abhilash Ghoda told Hindustantimes.com, "The Good Road was released silently, without any publicity in a single show to qualify for Oscar, after 18 months of its official release. We are sensing something dicey is being cooked. After 'Slum Dog Millionaire" Once again a wrong image of India and specially Gujarat and Kutch is being presented to the world, with a clear cut objective of spoiling Gujarat's name."

The filmmaker further added, "The controversial film (The Good Road) made out of NFDC's huge budget, receives National Award first and then immediately, it is announced for Oscar nomination, with definite and deliberate malafied intentions. (sic)"

The Good Road shows child prostitution in the interiors of Kutch and stars Ajay Gehi, Sonali Kulkarni, Keval Katrodia, Shamji Dhana Kerasia among many others.

In a letter to the CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification), Ghoda has questioned the grounds on which The Good Road was certified for public exhibition. The filmmaker wrote, " The Board doesn't allow Animals, Smoking and Drinking scenes and asks to put titles that 'It is not good for Health.' Are the underage girl Prostitution market scenes are not injurious to Social Health?" Concerned that the film brings out a false image of Gujarat, he further wrote in the letter, "The film has been made with the deliberate intention to show wrong image of Kutch and Gujarat." READ THE LETTER

Ghoda earlier said that any Gujarati who believes Gujarat is child prostitution free state should protest the choice of The Good Road for Oscars entry.

Gujarati film writer Vinay Dave posted on Facebook, "On 24/09/13, those who are associated with Gujarati film industry, protested against the nomination (of) Gujarati film "THE GOOD ROAD" for OSCARS," along with a few pictures of the protest.

The Gujarati filmmaker also plans to take the protest to Delhi and Mumbai, his posts on the social networking site suggested.