SHOCKING: 10 years before Sikandar, Hunterrr faced similar leak; director Harshvardhan Kulkarni BREAKS silence: "Savita Bhabhi's number in leaked copy was my number in real life; for 3-4 years, I got incessant calls; I BLOCKED more than 5000 numbers"

The industry got a shock on Sunday when Sikandar got leaked, the same day as its release. Moreover, it contains extra scenes which were not a part of the final cut. The same happened 10 years ago with Hunterrr (2015), which will re-release on April 4. Its writer-director Harshvardhan Kulkarni spoke exclusively about it with Bollywood Hungama.

 

SHOCKING: 10 years before Sikandar, Hunterrr faced similar leak; director Harshvardhan Kulkarni BREAKS silence: "Savita Bhabhi's number in leaked copy was my number in real life; for 3-4 years, I got incessant calls; I BLOCKED more than 5000 numbers"

 

One of the deleted scenes was that of Mandar Ponkshe (Gulshan Devaiah) having sex with Savita Bhabhi (Hansa Singh) just outside her flat. Harshvardhan Kulkarni explained the whole scenario saying, “We made this film entirely in 2012 without a single sex scene. When Shemaroo and Phantom came on board, they loved it but remarked, ‘Adult film hai toh kuch adult scene daal na’. I was wondering what is the need to insert a sex scene in the first place. I was uncomfortable about how I’ll put it. But when they insisted, I decided to put three such scenes. The first one was ‘dil pe til’ one in the hostel. The other was with Jyotsna (Sai Tamhankar) in the kitchen. The third scene was with Savita Bhabhi and it was very gross and disgusting. There was no romance in it at all. The producers were blown away by these scenes. However, the CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) refused to pass the Savita Bhabhi scene. That’s how it got chopped off.”

 

He continued, “Those days, we used to send DVDs for censoring. We used to mention ‘For Censor’ on one of the corners. I made 2 copies. One had anti-smoking disclaimers. I didn’t understand the reason for inserting it as I didn’t have any smoking scenes in the film. Hence, we made one more DVD copy, which didn’t have an anti-smoking warning. This copy got leaked on the day of the release. I was stunned.”

 

Harshvardhan Kulkarni further said, “Before the sex scene, we show Vasu getting a call from Savita Bhabhi. It was my AD’s phone and he had renamed me as Savita Bhabhi on his device. I used to call during the take. In other words, Savita Bhabhi’s number in the film was my number in real life! We had blurred my number in the theatrical version. But it wasn’t blurred in the leaked copy. As a result, for 3-4 years, I got incessant calls asking for Savita Bhabhi. It was a menace. I thought of changing my number. But I was advised not to do so as this number will be given to someone else after 6-7 months and the new user will get harassed. That person might file a case and as a result, I was told to retain the number.”

 

Harshvardhan added, “I had blocked more than 5000 numbers. Some of them used to add me in groups. Typically, the calls would start after 7:00 pm. The day the film was released, I got almost 100-200 calls. Also, I knew that they were watching the pirated version as in the theatrical version, my number was not visible. That saddened me tremendously. It did well in cinemas but would have done better had it not been leaked and had we not released during the exam season.”

 

Did he or the team of the film were able to find out who leaked the print? He replied, “No. We tried our best to find out but didn’t get any lead.”

 

Those were the days when Pahlaj Nihalani had just joined as the CBFC chairperson. His insistence on several cuts for NH10 (2015) caused a delay in its release by a week. Hence, it’s pleasantly surprising to know that the film didn’t get too many cuts.

 

Harshvardhan Kulkarni, however, said, “Our film also went through 1 audio cut. Ironically, the trailer was passed by the CBFC team, consisting of members elected by the previous government. They had retained the first line of the trailer, ‘Main c***u hoon’. But when passing the film, they removed the word ‘c***u’. So, the dialogue in the film is ‘Main ***** hoon’! I was amused. Just a week before release, in cinemas, the word ‘c***u’ could be heard in the trailer but the same cuss word was cut from the film! Hence, the censor board is a joke.”

 

Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: Hunterrr’s director Harshvardhan Kulkarni talks about the re-release plans; opens up on Akshay Kumar’s EPIC reaction to the film: “He told me, ‘Yaar, bahut mast picture hai'”; reveals, “The publications which THRASHED the film mentioned Hunterrr in the list of top 10 films of the year”

Catch us for latest Bollywood News, New Bollywood Movies update, Box office collection,New Movies Release, Bollywood News Hindi, Entertainment News, Bollywood News Today & upcoming movies 2024 and stay updated with latest hindi movies only on Bollywood Hungama.