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I&B ministry clears Water with minor changes

The script of Deepa Mehta's controversial film Water was today cleared by the Information and Broadcasting ministry with minor changes after a formal approval of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Mehta will now be allowed to go ahead with her shooting schedule in Varanasi.

The Uttar Pradesh government had disallowed the film's unit to proceed with the shooting after some local leaders objected to certain references to Hinduism in the film.

Mehta today met Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley in Delhi and discussed the matter with him. She later told newspersons that the minor changes suggested by the ministry would not affect her script.

''It was becoming a law and order problem...I thought if the matter can be resolved by dropping a couple of words from the script what's the harm,'' the controversial director, whose earlier two films - Fire and Earth - too had generated much heat, told a television channel. Water is the third in the triology.

The film is based on the life of widows in Varanasi and stars Mehta's favourites - Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das - in lead roles.

Mehta said there is nothing that could be seen as derogatory to Hinduism in Water which, she says, depicts the lives of Hindu widows in Varanasi in the 1930s.

According to an agency reports only five sentences have been removed from the original script.

Arun Jaitley, confirming that the film had been cleared, said that the Uttar Pradesh government was being apprised of the decision. He said after a series of meetings between him and officials of his ministry, the revised script was sent to the prime minister for his clearance.

FIRE OVER WATER
'It's like banning a book before it is written'
'If your intentions are honourable make the script public'
'How can anyone come back to shoot here'

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