Why I made this film against censorship and bans

I decided in 2012 to throw away an Oxford education and a high paying economist job in London to come back to the entertainment industry in Mumbai. I did so because I believed in the idea and the future of India. The recession and the Eurozone crisis had meant the world was looking to China and India as the next global growth engines. But thank God I'm not going back to China, I reasoned. They don't have democracy there. Or freedom.

Freedom.

Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution gives its citizens the Fundamental Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression. Of course, 19(1)(b) pretty much takes it right back:

"Nothing in sub clause (a) of clause (1) shall affect the operation of any existing law, or prevent the state from making any law, in so far as such law imposes reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub clause in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence."

Public order? Decency? Morality? Terms that are so vague that they have, in the recent past, been used to ban "lesbian", "kutte kaminey", "haramzaade" and even entire films. While in most countries, the definitions of morality and decency have become more progressive with time, in India there seems to be a marked regression.

Imagine if Dharam paaji had not been allowed to say "kutte kaminey main tera khoon pi jaunga", or if Salman Khan could not have said "ma ki aankh". So many of Indian cinema's greatest moments wouldn't exist.

Moreover, blanket bans do not really do anything to safeguard decency and morality. Give me Dharam paaji's antics any day over Munni and Sheila. Creative people will always find a way of getting their point across.

I did not sign up to live in a fascist dictatorial country. Complete freedom of speech and expression should be an undeniable and unquestioned right. Questioning and standing up to authority is the only way anything ever got done. Ask MK Gandhi.

As a creative person, and as someone who believes in the idea and future of India, I needed to make a stand. And I did so in the way any creative person would - by entertaining.