Anil Mehta speaks to Subhash K Jha on the offensive line in the Aaja Nachle song which Yashraj Films has now decided to delete...

Did you ever anticipate this furore over a line of song?
Not at all. If you look at the spirit of the film, it isn't about discrimination, it's about the participation of people from all walks of life.

I think the terms 'mochi' and 'sonar' were found to be objectionable?
I'm not aware of more politically correct terms for these professionals. But we've taken a very simple stance. If the line has offended such a large section of people, so much so that a chief-minister needed to take a position on it, then we have no reservations about deleting that line.

As I said Aaja Nachle isn't about discrimination but collective participation. The offending line has been physically cut from every print in the country.

But if the average man in Bihar or Madhya Pradesh can take the song in the right spirit why tamper with it?
No...See, if the ramifications are caste-oriented we can't discriminate between a state that objects or doesn't object. If we remove it in one state then we must remove it everywhere. This is the producers' decision.

We had never intended it to be objectionable to any one in the first place. Apparently the ban in UP has already been lifted.

My objection to Aaja Nachle is that the dances in the film do not represent our traditional culture.
Please define culture. It varies from person to person. The film is more about those cultural spaces where people can come together.

My film wasn't aimed at propagating a purist culture. It's about bringing people from different walks of life for one endeavour. I didn't want to define culture.

The long staged Laila-Majnu climax seems a homage to traditional Indian theatre.
I'm sure even theatre purists will find complaints against it. Even as a play is staged there's cinema seeping into the sequence. But yes, again I wanted to depict a participative spirit. In college I've dabbled in theatre.

The small-town ambience in Aaja Nachle is splendid.
We created it on a set in Mumbai. And if people thought it was a location that's a big compliment. I went on a 20- day reiki checked out towns like Bhopal and Indore. Lots of real construction material was used on the sets.We wove in the chaos and confusions of a small town into out fictional town.

Women-centric films don't run...
Let's not be hasty. Let's wait a week.