By Joginder Tuteja
Mumbai, Dec 7 (IANS) Ram Gopal Varma has replaced controversial song “Jana Gana Mana Rann” with the “Vande Mataram” in the final cut of his forthcoming movie “Rann” and says that the track will play in the background.

So is another controversy on the way as the filmmaker has moved from the country’s national anthem to the national song?

“Not at all. What we have used of ‘Vande Mataram’ are just these two words. I don’t see anything controversial in this since it stands for ‘Bow to thee, Mother’. Tell me, what’s wrong in using that?” Varma told IANS.

“Rann” is about the media industry and Amitabh Bachchan plays media bigwig Harshvardhan Malik in the film that also stars Riteish Deshmukh, Paresh Rawal, Mohnish Behl, Suchitra Krishnamurthy and Gul Panag.

Earlier this year, Varma’s “Rann” came under fire when the film’s first look was revealed with the song “Jana Gana Mann Rann”. Since the lyrics of the national anthem were altered to give it a new socio-political dimension, the matter reached the censor board and the court.

While the censor board instructed Varma to refrain from telecasting the promo, producers Madhu Mantena and Sheetal Vinod Talwar had registered a civil case in the Mumbai High Court against the board’s ruling.

In fact, the makers of the films had even sent copies of the music video to MPs to show that they were in no way hurting national sentiments.

“But then there was no point defending the song on and on. Enough noise was being made and it was best to replace it with something else and move on. I can now say that the entire controversy is pretty much left behind,” Varma said.

Since the song is no more a part of “Rann”, will it impact the film in totality?

“Not really, because eventually ‘Vande Mataram’ is a part of the background score. Since it wasn’t a different song that was shot, it doesn’t make a fundamental difference to the narrative,” said Varma.

Unlike Varma’s previous movies, “Rann” doesn’t have an item number.

“No, there is no item number in ‘Rann’. Each song is related to the theme of ‘Rann’ and they would last for 30 seconds or at most 60 seconds in the film. There is no lip sync song either. The beauty of the music of ‘Rann’ is that it brings in a completely creative feel and an emotional tone to the narrative,” he said.