Religion and identity — the two have confronted filmmaker Raj Amit Kumar since he was growing up in Muzaffarnagar in northern UP. “I have seen people pay the price with their lives for being part of a certain minority community. I have lived through that hardship and always wondered the cause behind it,” says the US-based filmmaker, over a phone conversation. It is these qu...

        Joining issue with Indian censors for banning his controversial film "Unfreedom", director raj (ed: correct) Amit Kumar says "the most important social responsibility of an artist is to express freely and fearlessly". "Do filmmakers make films to give away messages," asked Kumar during an interview with IANS. He is currently engaged in a court batt...

Before we proceed with the stuff directly, can you tell me do the dreams come true? I know it’s nothing but a crazy question which we are raising genuinely but will insist on the same in a different way have a look. Though the golden dreams are like something that won’t come true however, if we talk about a film which is ‘Banned’ then? Have you paused a bit? I guess you mig...

In order for this petition campaign to be successful, and for a real change to happen for all Indians, the filmmaker seeks support from everyone who believes in freedom of speech. India is a democracy and we all have freedom of speech. We are all taught about our democratic composition from our school days. However, the real question is, how much of it do we exercise and...

After 'Unfreedom' was banned from releasing in India, its director Raj Amit Kumar has released a video appealing to everyone to sign a petition addressed to the prime minister, to protect the freedom of expression of all Indian citizens. The video, which was uploaded on Youtube on April 9, questions the functioning of Central Board of Certification (CBFC) and the way it ...

His movie Unfreedom got banned in India by the censor board and that is why director Raj Amit Kumar is asking support from all citizens. He is asking them to voice their opinions about their choices. The director made a video which shows that he is asking the citizens to sign a petition addressing to the prime minister of India about their choices. He also has some advices ...

Unfreedom: Blemished Light (Hindi: Dagh Ujala) is a 2014 English/Hindi socio-political drama film by Raj Amit Kumar which will be released in North America on May 29, 2015. Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s poem, “Ye Dagh Dagh Ujala”, is the inspiration behind the film. The story revolves around a Muslim fundamentalist in New York who kidnaps a liberal Muslim scholar with an intent to k...

During the Q&A session on Jai Ho , a film on music director A. R. Rahman, at the Stein Auditorium of India Habitat Centre earlier this week, a quiet man could be seen signing autographs and posing for selfies. Not many realised who he was till Rahman called Resul Pookutty’s name from the stage. Pookutty won an Oscar for sound mixing in Slumdog Millionaire . Rahman ba...

San Leandro, Calif. — A debutant Indian American filmmaker is drumming up scandal over his feature film, “Unfreedom.” Set to open in the U.S. May 29, the film was banned in India for its inflammatory content. In “Unfreedom” (previously known as “Blemished Light”), director Raj Amit Kumar addresses the topic of freedom by telling two stories side by side — in one, a l...

If wishes were horses, then we would be given a little more time to celebrate the sublime before we are forced to once again condemn the ludicrous. But that is clearly not to be, and less that five days after the Supreme Court’s verdict in the Shreya Singhal case striking own Section 66A of the IT Act, we are gifted the latest act of farcical banning by the cent...