Call it self-censorship, precaution, pressure or what you will, the makers of director Nitin Kakkar’s Mitron, which stars Jackky Bhagnani and Kritika Kamra, have made a quiet change in the film and its trailer.
Pratik Gandhi, who plays Jackky’s friend, had a line in the trailer that went, “Wah! Jeb mein sirf paanch sau, aur confidence Modi jaisa! [Just 500 bucks in the pocket but your confidence rivals Modi's]."
However, the trailer of the film that is being shown in theatres now has a small but significant change. 'Modi’ has been replaced by ‘Mehta’.
Obviously, the surname ‘Modi’ instantly brings to mind prime minister Narendra Modi. If you are wondering who 'Mehta' is, so are we. Little wonder the new dialogue lacks the punch of the original.
However, the film's trailer on YouTube continues to have ‘Modi’ in the dialogue as it is not possible to edit the content on the online video platform.
This is not the first time, of course, that the surname 'Modi' has been replaced in a recent Hindi film. In Salman Khan's Tiger Zinda Hai (2017), Paresh Rawal's character utters the line: "PM saheb ko pata hai [Does the PM know]?" After the film's release, director Ali Abbas Zafar revealed that the original was, "Modiji ko pata hai [Does Mr Modi know]?" But the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) suggested that the prime minister's name be not used as the film was a work of fiction.
Coming back to Mitron, the film's title is also associated with the prime minister since this was how he frequently addressed the nation until at least the end of 2016, when he quietly dumped it in the wake of the rising number of memes and jokes around it after demonetization.
We just hope the title remains intact when the film is released. Doston, for instance, would just not have that ring now, would it?
Watch the Mitron trailer: