Producer-director Vinod Pande has decided to go ahead with the release of his controversial film "Sins" Friday, despite a ban called by Catholic groups and a refusal by satellite channels to screen promos.

"Sins", according to Pande, tells the story of a Catholic priest who slips and commits a crime of passion with a young girl.

While Catholic organisations have raised strong protests, questioning the film's portrayal of the priest, satellite channels have refused to show the "sexually explicit" promos of the film branding them fit for adult viewing.

Pande, however, is neither perturbed by the ballyhoo nor is he considering meeting any of the Catholic heads.

"Why should I talk to them and get their creative nod? I am living in a democratic country," he said.

"They are doing great disservice to their own community by calling for a ban on something they haven't seen. I don't care a damn if they have problems since I have got an official censor clearance, which gives me the right to release the film. But I do intend to take preventive steps to avoid any problems.

"It is not just priests," Pande clarifies. "It is the tragedy of crimes of passion that people in high places - high temporal priests, reputed educationists, members of royalties - commit occasionally and have to pay heavily for," he said, adding that "Sins" was inspired by the real-life incident of a priest in Kerala.

Pande is also upset with satellite channels for their blunt refusal to screen the film's promos.

"They were of the opinion that the promos were only fit for adult viewing and asked us to get a censor clearance. But even after getting the clearance, they refused to screen them. This, at a time when Channel V and MTV screen some of the most questionable videos around the clock," Pande argued.

According to Pande, the "sexually explicit" film scenes were not simply for titillation.

"The film is about relationships, not sexuality. There may be nudity but there is also a lot of aesthetics involved in the portrayal," he said.

"The film has been very sensitively made and I am well aware of my responsibilities as a filmmaker. I did not want the film to be misconstrued as cheap, which is one of the reasons I chose to make it in English.

"Besides, this is not the first time I have made a bold film. All the films I have made so far have been very intense in their sexual depiction, be it 'Ek Baar Phir', 'Yeh Nazdikiyan' or 'Sach'," Pande said.

The distributors Yashraj Films are meanwhile keeping silent over the whole issue.

"Yash-ji (Yash Chopra) has seen the film. So has everyone else in distribution before they bought the rights. They did not find anything objectionable about the film," he says.

What is causing him anxiety, though, is the politicisation of the issue, with certain sections questioning his political links.

"I have no political links. Prior to this, I had done a serial called 'Reporter' which dealt with the politics and functioning of priests affiliated to temples. No one protested then," he says.