Kangana Ranaut’s upcoming film Mental Hai Kya underwent a change in title. The movie is now called Judgementall Hai Kya. The film has been through a lot. After several delays and restrictions, the Censor Board has finally cleared their movie with minor cuts. The Ekta Kapoor produced project came under the radar amidst allegations by the Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS). The title was criticized as it trivialised mental health issues. Subjected for a change in name, Kangana says that there were four options before they zeroed down to Judgementall Hai Kya.
She says, “My character's name is Bobby Grewal Batliwala so we thought of calling the film by my character name. Then, there was one called Bobby Mental Hai Kya. The title should also give out the nature of the film. And it's a tedious process to get the title. We had a few other suggestions like Sentimental Hai Kya which came up. Ekta (Kapoor) didn't feel it sounded nice or aligned with our theme. We needed to show a condition and this wasn't doing justice. Then someone even thought we can call it just Bobby. But RK Films already own rights to it and we couldn't get it.”
View this post on Instagram
They're here to set fire to your perceptions. Trust No One! #MentalHaiKya #TrustNoOne @team_kangana_ranaut @rajkummar_rao @ektaravikapoor @shobha9168 @ruchikaakapoor @shaaileshrsingh @prakashkovelamudi @kanika.d @zeemusiccompany#MentalHaiKyaOn26thJuly
A post shared by Kangana Ranaut (@team_kangana_ranaut) on
She further adds, “Things were getting complicated and I was like let's go with whatever sails our boat because we had already shifted three release dates and I didn't want to delay it any further. All the other big days are completely choc-a-bloc. Then, Judgementall Hai Kya happened and even the Censor was happy with it. They also agreed that it went nicely with the concept of our film which is aimed at the prejudices and the ways we judge people who behave differently. There were a few from the team who had an objection to Judgementall Hai Kya because they felt it wasn't doing justice to what we want to show. They felt we are compromising on our film. But they were very few in number so they were in the minority (laughs).”
Talking about the reason behind the change of title and the Censor Board’s inputs, Kangana says, “We had a trailer launch scheduled for last week. The trailer went for certification a few days before that and we got to know that there are several cases and legal notices from All India Psychiatry department. We are happy to get the changes made because it's a government body and it needs to be respected. They absolutely loved the film and there were no cuts in the film. The only thing they asked for was to never use to word 'mental'. Since last year, there were a few specific words that the Board has deemed problematic. Words like Pagla, Paagal must be avoided. Now, it's different from what it was earlier. We have made this film very responsibly and there's nothing derogatory about it. Even the Censor Board watched the whole film and felt the same. The problem was only the title and it's just a few weeks before the release. We had to figure a new title, get it registered and then get a certificate. So this was a long procedure. It took a week to ten days so the only thing we feel bad about is the delay it has caused. We couldn't release any unit because of this.”
Read More