Laado’s DM makes I & B ministry see red

Beware all Hindi GECs! Please watch out what you’re showing. The Information & Broadcasting Ministry is keeping a hawk eye on every visual that you beam. Barely a week after it received a showcause notice for Bigg Boss 3, Colors is slapped with another I & B notice and this time it’s for their fiction show Na aana iss des laado The channel will have to explain why their show shouldn’t be taken off air for depicting a District Magistrate as corrupt and a womanizer. Colors is given 15 days to respond to this notice. Failure to do so would then lead the ministry to take further action. In these episodes, the District Magistrate, played by actor Deep Raj Rana, is in Veerpur to investigate the cases of female foeticide but he turns corrupt and starts blackmailing the accused Ammaji (Meghna Malik). Not only he takes bribe but he also orders Ammaji to arrange for sexual favours. The notice says the magistrate has been shown in a bad light and negatively. The Ministry noted that the magistrate’s lust for women defies any logic. In fact, in one of the episodes women are paraded before him on his request. "The entire characterization appears to be a grotesque caricature of a district administrator. There is no denial of the fact that portrayal of a public authority in a negative role is well within the rights of a creative medium. However in the democratic set up of our country, a District Magistrate is the chief representative of the Government at the District level. Thus deliberately portraying the character of the District Magistrate in a derogatory way appears to demean the public institution and bring it to disrepute unnecessarily," the notice said. Colors official refused to comment at this moment. Deep Raj Rana, the man at the centre of this controversy isn’t overtly surprised by this reaction. “Honestly speaking, I’m not surprised by this notice. If the ministry has find fault then perhaps they may be right somewhere. I too was a little apprehensive about the womanizing part of my character. I’ve played negative role in the past where I’ve raped and killed people. However, I must state this is a serial and I’m merely enacting the character given to me by the writers.” This is not the first time that laado has courted controversy. Not too long ago the Haryana government had sent a letter to the I & B ministry objecting to the show’s content. They felt that the show was depicting their state in bad light. Fearing action, the show makers had then curbed the use of the Haryanvi language. So, will there be changes to Rana’s character now? “There’s no need for that. From hereon, there won’t be any womanising track. DM will merely look to even scores with Ammaji. So, it will purely be a battle between Ammaji and DM,” said Rana. For Colors, getting such notices isn’t new. A week back, Bigg Boss was accused of vulgarity. Bairi piya, one of their newly launched shows, invoked the ire of an NGO from Vidarbha for projecting false tales whereby poor farmers are shown to selling their daughter.