Sholay’s ‘Yeh Dosti’ no more cool in UP

LUCKNOW: Remember the iconic song from Sholay featuring Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan riding their motorbikes and swearing by their friendship? If the blockbuster were to be played out in UP cinemas now, there’s a likelihood the ‘Yeh Dosti…’ song will be deleted or blacked out. And no, it’s not because Veeru and Jai hurt any ‘religious sentiments’; it’s because the friends didn’t adhere to traffic rules and wear helmets.Also, because they are seen doing some sort of stunt.
In its latest diktat, UP’s transport department has directed all district magistrates and chairpersons of the district road safety committees to impose a strict ban on scenes in films, commercials, or television series that show violation of road safety rules. The department says that the order has been issued considering the large number of accidental deaths and grievous injuries caused to people during road accidents every year.
In an official statement on Tuesday, UP’s transport commissioner K Ravindra Naik said such videos and publicity material tends to have an adverse impact on viewers, especially the youth among them, and must be banned in order to the curb the tendency to flout road safety norms.
The order, which comes into effect immediately, will also mean DMs will now monitor content being beamed into homes via the direct to home or cable operator route. “Objectionable” content, the government said, would not only be banned locally, but the state government will also raise a pitch, where necessary, for a clamp down at “higher” levels, where content cannot be blocked locally. That’s why, riding without a helmet, driving without a seat belt, drunken driving, speeding, and burning rubber “Dhoom” style or performing wheelies may not longer be cool in the eyes of the UP government.