Supreme Court slams RGV for distorting national anthem

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today came down heavily on Bollywood director Ram Gopal Verma's distortion of the national anthem in his forthcoming film "Rann" saying it gives a "totally negative sense".

"We have read it. It gives a totally negative sense. It seems every line of national anthem has been proved wrong. Nobody has got a right to tinker with the national anthem," a vacation bench of Justices V S Sirpurkar and R M Lodha said.

The bench made the observation while declining to quash the order passed by the Censor Board on May 8 directing Verma to delete certain "objectionable" references made to the national anthem in the movie.

Senior counsel Arun Jaitley's argument on behalf of the director that even parties like Congress-I, NCP and Trinamool Congress use the national tricolour with their respective party symbols failed to convince the bench which asked the petitioner to approach the appellate tribunal of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) on the certification issue.

The film stars superstar Amitabh Bachchan among others.