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Exceprt :

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, whose name is being suggested for the Nobel peace prize for signing a peace accord with the Maoists and ending 10 years’ of bloodshed, was also at the helm of the country in 2002 when Puri made his controversial film, Aago (Fire).

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Source :http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Philippines+%26+South+Asia&month=February2007&file=World_News200702029160.xml

Cinema breathes free of censors in Nepal
Web posted at: 2/2/2007 9:16:0
Source ::: IANS
Kathmandu • The coming of peace after a decade of communist insurgency and the formation of a multi-party government has helped Nepal shoot down the bans imposed by censors.

Nepali film director Narayan Puri, who was the first in Nepal’s film industry to dare make a film on the Maoist movement when the guerrillas were banned as terrorists and paid for the defiance by having censors hack his film ruthlessly, has been revived by the winds of change blowing in since then.

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, whose name is being suggested for the Nobel peace prize for signing a peace accord with the Maoists and ending 10 years’ of bloodshed, was also at the helm of the country in 2002 when Puri made his controversial film, Aago (Fire).

However, things were vastly different then. The Maoists, who returned to parliament this year and are poised to join Koirala’s government, were banned as a terrorist organisation in 2002 with an international alert for the capture of their top leaders.

Though “Aago” did not refer to the Maoists by their name, it was seen as glorifying the guerrillas.

The censor board first ordered Puri to cut out nine scenes and then, sat on the negatives for 11 months, preventing its release.

In 2005, when the Koirala government had given way to King Gyanendra’s regime, formed through a bloodless coup, “Aago” continued to suffer at censors’ hands. Along with nearly six other films, it was tacitly banned from Nepal’s theatres.

However, after the fall of King Gyanendra’s government in April, the resilient Puri shot back with a new film on the Maoists, Alpo-Biram (Short truce).

It conveys the message that the Maoists, who have called ceasefires thrice earlier, should now pledge themselves to lasting peace and end the armed insurrection.

After the completion of Alpo-Biram last year, Puri is now re-making Aago, restoring the scenes deleted by the censors.

Aago looks at the reasons that forced humble people, who had no political aspirations, to take up arms and oppose the system,” Puri says.