Today, Friday 16th of September was the original date for the release of Mausam, which has now been moved a week ahead to Friday the 23rd due to some objections from the IAF and a delay in the Indian Air Force’s No Objection Certificate and censorship certificates. The cast went public at a press conference on Wednesday to explain the current situation.
“The reason for this [delay] is that we had applied for two permissions – a NOC (no objection certificate) from the IAF (Indian Air Force) and certification from the censor board, but IAF gave us a conditional certificate because they wanted a 30-second scene from a particular sequence to be corrected,” explained Shahid to reporters at the press conference.
It was earlier rumored that the objections were much greater and involving scenes which the IAF felt would be detrimental to their image. Shahid’s father Pankaj tried to clear confusion, explaining that the objection from the IAF only centers around a small 30 second clip of the air force which required some graphical adjustments taking some time. Shahid confirmed that the censor bored had award the film with a universal certificate (U). “Now we have obtained both certificates but we have lost time as the prints had to be sent out for the film’s international release. Although we are now ready for an all-India release, we wanted a worldwide release.” This extra time has given the cast time to promote the film further.
Mausam sees Shahid Kapoor playing a fighter pilot who falls in love with a Kashmiri girl (Sonam Kapoor). This is a directorial debut for Pankaj Kapoor but it is set to be a great success with praises for all involved in the project. The film is being tipped as Shahid’s best performance and a platform from Sonam to cement her place as a top B-town actress.
After pulling out from the Toronto Film Festival, Mausam will be set for a premiere two days before release in London followed by a grand premiere in Mumbai to mark a worldwide release.
