‘No One Killed Jessica’ gets A-certificate, makers happy

NEW DELHI - The censor board has awarded the A-certificate to “No One Killed Jessica” - based on a real murder - without any cuts and its makers Thursday hailed the decision saying they were happy to be able to take the story to the audience.

“The emotion of the journey, the power of the people and the relentless effort of the media needed to be brought to the audience in the right light and hats off to the censor board for keeping that above all else while judging the film,” said Vikas Behl, a senior official at UTV, which has produced the film.

Set for a Jan 7 release, “No One Killed Jessica” is based on ramp model Jessica Lall’s murder case.

Director Rajkumar Gupta roped in Vidya Balan to play Jessica’s sister Sabrina who fought tooth and nail to get justice for her sister.

Rani Mukerji plays a journalist in the film and the director said her character is brutal and graphic in her speech and will be seen mouthing expletives non-stop. It was feared that the censor may object to these scenes.

Another area of discomfort for the film was the legal ramifications of showing real-life people, particularly the hostile witnesses in the murder case.

In fact, former top cop Amodh Kanth had urged the censor board to ensure that only facts relating to the Jessica Lall murder case are presented in “No One Killed Jessica”.

He was the joint commissioner of police (southern range) when Jessica was shot dead in a night club by Manu Sharma, the son of a Haryana politician in 1999. Sharma has been awarded a life sentence by the Supreme Court.