Kolkata Metro clears Vidya's scene in 'Kahaani'

The producers of the Vidya Balan starrer Kahaani have sorted out issues with the Kolkata Metro Railway authorities who had objected to a scene in the film where the actress is shown being pushed perilously before a speeding underground train.

"They have promised us that there is nothing in the film that will tarnish the image of the metro railway or prompt people to commit suicide on the tracks. We are happy with their explanation and have removed objections," Kolkata Metro's general manager PB Murti told PTI.

Glad to have been able to convince the railway officials, producer-director Sujoy Ghosh said, "I have spent my childhood in Kolkata and will never do anything that will harm the city. The film is meant to increase the curiosity about the wonderful city that Kolkata is."

A Kahaani trailer shows a pregnant Vidya waiting on the platform to board a Metro train at the Kalighat station. As soon as the train arrives, she is pushed onto the tracks by a man standing close to her.

Worried that the scene would remind people of the frequent acts of suicides on the tracks that has been tarnishing the image of India's first tube railway, officials had written to the film's producer asking him to remove the scene from the trailers as well as the film, which releases this Friday.

A source close to the film said the shot is part of a dream sequence and has been shot using computer-generated imagery.

The metro authorities had allowed the film unit to shoot for four days last year at the busy Tollygunj and Kalighat stations, where the controversial scene was filmed.

Kahaani has Vidya playing a seven months pregnant woman who has come to Kolkata from London in search of her husband.

With nothing to rely on except fragments of her memory about him, it is a story of a woman's relentless struggle in an unknown city.