The Bombay High Court on Thursday criticised the controversy surrounding movie Udta Punjab and said there “should not be hue and cry over this”. It said the present generation wants to watch movies that deal with mature themes, NDTV reported. The court was hearing a petition filed by makers of Udta Punjab Anurag Kashyap and Vikas Bahl against the CBFC’s list of cuts for the film, which examines the theme of substance abuse in India.

The court questioned whether the Central Board of Film Certification believed the film merely depicted the state as a drug capital, as well as the list of cuts it has demanded in the movie to grant it a certificate. “How can you ask them [the filmmakers] to delete words like MP, MLA and election?” the court asked. The hearing was adjourned till Friday, June 10.

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The board’s stand has been widely criticised. The Indian Film and Television Directors Association, in a press conference on Wednesday, along with other Bollywood figures, urged the censor board to grant the movie certification and also demanded that CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani apologise for alleging that Kashyap took money from the Aam Aadmi Party to depict Punjab in bad light.

Moreover, renowned filmmaker Shyam Benegal, who is heading a committee set up to revamp the working of the censor board, denied that the movie was critical of Punjab and said it was a very “important film”. Others in the industry also condemned the matter. Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar said it should not “kill creativity”, while actor Randeep Hooda said, “It is a certification board, not a censor board…It should let people decide what they want to see.”

Furthermore, Punjab Congress President Amarinder Singh said on Thursday that he will release uncensored copies of Udta Punjab in Majitha town near Amritsar on June 17, the day the movie was scheduled to release. Singh compared Majitha to Mexico, saying it was the “epicentre of drugs trade in Punjab”. He has written to the producers and requested for uncut copies of the film, IANS reported.