Asian filmmakers find it increasingly tough to get shooting permission in England.

Priyadarshan's Tezz under scrutiny for its terror theme?
By Subhash K. Jha, October 2, 2010 - 11:11 IST



Asian filmmakers find it increasingly tough to get shooting permission in England. And when British authorities hear about a brown-skinned community coming down to their country to make a film on terrorism and terror attacks, the Brits go into convulsive fits. Rensil D'Silva had to shift Kurbaan, his film on Islamic extremism, from London to Philadelphia.

Now it's the makers of Tezz who have gotten their project into a budge because it's a film about a terror attack on board a speeding train between London and Glasgow.

Having been denied work permits for a part of their crew the team now claims the film is not about terrorism at all!

Priyadarshan grappled and solved the huge problem of getting work permits for 14 of his crew members in Tezz, the film about terrorists holding a speeding train between London and Glasgow to ransom.

Apparently, the work permits were denied because of the terror theme. Skirting the terrorist issue Priyadarshan says, "But Tezz is not about terrorism! The man who holds the speeding train to ransom does not represent any ideology or religion. He is his own person."

Denying that the film is a remake of the famous terrorist adventures The Bullet Train and The Taking Of Pelham 123, Priyadarshan says, "Let people speculate on the source for my film. It is being said that my Aakrosh is ripped off from Alan Pakula's Mississippi Burning. Aakrosh does have two investigative officers coming to a small conservative place to investigate a hushed-up killing, just like Mississippi Burning. That's it. Likewise Tezz is about a train held-up just like the films you mentioned. But I'd say the only film Tezz resembles is Jan de Bont's Speed."

Priyadarshan's Tezz is now moving on the right track. The film starts shooting on October 10. Almost the entire shooting with the cast featuring Ajay Devgn, Anil Kapoor, Boman Irani, Kangna Ranaut and Sameera Reddy would be over in a 40-day schedule.

Priyadarshan admits the work permits to be professionally functional in the UK were denied to the crew. "Most of us got the work permit. But fourteen of the crew members did not get their permits. We could not start shooting without them. That apart we've all the relevant permission to shoot in London. We shoot from October 10 to November 20. And then we're done."

Adds producer Ratan Jain, "The delay in the work permits was caused by a procedural problem. Now it's all sorted out and all the work permits have been allotted."