Prem Chopra, Kader Khan and Satish Kaushik in Razdan’s Umar

Karan Razdan’s two back-to-back ready-for-release films, Souten and Eight Shani, were in censor trouble. Explains the director, “It was the animal welfare activists. There are scenes involving animals in both my films. These days any film with animals is scrutinised. I’m okay with that. But I need to know the dos and don’ts better. Anyway, I met Maneka Gandhi and I must say she was extremely courteous. Though when I spoke to her about creative freedom she did reprimand me not to hide behind concepts of creativity to get away with code violations. But we filmmakers seriously need to know what those codes regarding animals in films are. Are we supposed to not have animals in our films at all? Anyway, thanks to Manekaji’s reasonable attitude both Souten and Eight Shani have been cleared. Distributors who were on tenterhooks can breathe easy.”

After the release of Umar last week, Karan Razdan has Souten and Eight Shani lined up in the next two weeks. “Yes, it’s Souten on March 24, and Eight Shani on March 31. So that’s three releases in three weeks. I don’t know of any other director with the same track record,” laughs Razdan. “In the first few years of my career as a director I just made one film. In the last three years I’ve directed six films. That’s because of my Buddhist leanings. In fact, Eight Shani is entirely an offshoot of my experiences in Buddhism.”

Razdan has dedicated Eight Shani to his late wife Priya Tendulkar. “I dedicated my first film Roshni to her, but it never got released. Luckily my other tribute to this remarkable woman is finally going to be out. Eight Shani is my way of saying sorry for all the wrongs that I did to Priya.” As for Souten? “It does have a fair amount of body exposure because it’s about adultery. And you can’t show adultery without sex. But compared to what we got to see in films like Neal ‘N’ Nikki and Aksar, I feel Souten is child’s play. Even Girlfriend, my film about lesbianism, had no skin show.” ? Subhash K. Jha