Leaked copy of controversial ‘Udta Punjab’ appears and disappears

On Wednesday, June 14th a copy of the upcoming movie Udta Punjab appeared online on torrent sites to be downloaded. The links to the download appeared two days before the official release of the film which was slated for Friday evening on June 17th.

The torrents to the new movie were taken off immediately and replaced with the usual “this file has been removed due to a copyright complaint’. This was probably because the film’s team got in touch with the torrent site or the authorities about the leak.

When the spokesperson for the film’s team was contacted for a statement by the IANS, they responded with “No comments”.

According to the screenshots of the movie, as posted on the websites, the copy of the film leaked is rumored to be the one that was submitted to the Central Board of Film Certification earlier, for the need of approval on the film’s release. The images also suggest that the movie has a runtime of 2 hours and 20 minutes in total.

The CBFC and film director Abhishek Chaubey have been reported on several occasions during the past weeks for disagreements on the movie. When initially submitted to the CBFC, the Censorship Committee reverted with their opinion of making 89 cuts in the film for it to be released for public viewing.

While a re-appeal caused the Reviewing Committee to return with a more relaxed opinion of introducing 13 cuts, the movie was approved for its release by the Bombay High Court on Monday. The movie now has just one scene that’s been cut and will come with three disclaimers to appropriate with the settings and sightings in the film.

THE CBFC stated its primary cause of despair to be the wrong light in which the movie portrayed Punjab as well as its rampant drug problem.

The film is set to make its debut in India as well as the USA on June 17th as initially scheduled.