Akshay Kumar will have to redub portions of his upcoming alien adventure Joker. Reason: to prevent any future controversy over director Shirish Kunder’s ‘realistic’ approach to filmmaking. The film Joker is based in an imaginary place called Paglapur. However, according to the original script, its location wasn’t too imaginary after all. Twice in the film, Akki would complain about the Government neglecting Paglapur, primarily because it is a disputed piece of land between Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Filmmakers tend to venture into realism but later find themselves in a sticky situation. Akki and Shirish have however decided to play it safe. While seeing the final draft of the film a few days back, Akki realised that perhaps mouthing the real names of states wasn’t future-friendly and this may give rise to controversies once the film is screened. Thus, he suggested Shirish to change the names. A source close to the project told us, “Shirish wasn’t convinced too easily. He wanted it to remain the way he had originally envisaged. But Akki prevailed upon him by arguing that even Aamir Khan in Peepli Live had used imaginary state names.” The portions will now be redubbed by Akshay. Madhya Pradesh will change to Mukhya Pradesh, UP as Uttam Pradesh and Rajasthan as Prajasthan. When contacted, Shirish confirmed that they have indeed decided to play it safe. “It was a joint decision. We have changed the names of Rajasthan, MP and UP now. The plot is fictional. So why venture into names of real places?”
