Yogesh Pawar, Anupama Ramachandran for NDTV
Mumbai, Feb 23: Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray has said that if he feels that the film Black Friday glorifies Dawood, then he'll shut it down.
The controversial film on the 1993 Mumbai blasts had finally made it to the theatres two weeks ago.
"I haven't seen the film. I plan to watch it, and if it glorifies Dawood, I will make sure the film is never shown again," said Bal Thackeray, Leader, Shiv Sena.
But the threat has shocked the makers of the film. They say that they had already screened the film for the Thackeray family and even accepted the cuts that they had asked for.
Moreover, they say that there's no attempt to glorify Dawood or the underworld, but instead it is a graphic depiction of the city's darkest hours - the 1992 riots, communal polarization and the coming together of the underworld to trigger a series of blasts on March 12, 1993.
However, Bal Thackeray's threat is just the latest in a line of setbacks for the film, which has already faced legal censorship.
The film's release was earlier stopped for two years by the court hearing the 1993 blasts case. The reason for that was that the film could bias public opinion.
Now that the trial is over and the film is out, it appears that it has run into Mumbai's moral censors.