With just 10 days left for Shahid Kapoor's Udta Punjab to hit the screens, the film based on drug abuse in the state of Punjab has landed itself in a controversy. After Censor Board of Film Certification refused to issue a certificate to Abhishek Chaubey's film, thanks to expletives, the board has made harsher suggestions and asked the makers to remove Punjab from the film's title and also set the film in a fictional world.

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This very demand hasn't gone down too well with co-producer Anurag Kashyap. The 43-year-old filmmaker-turned-producer took to Twitter to rant against the unjustified demand and even compared India to North Korea.

I always wondered what it felt like to live in North Korea .. Ab to plane pakadney ki bhi zaroorat nahin.. Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) June 6, 2016

He added that people opposing the film and its title are actually guilty of promoting drugs.

There is no film more honest than UDTA PUNJAB .. And any person or party opposing it is actually GUILTY of promoting drugs Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) June 6, 2016

The co-producer has found support in Ashok Pandit, CBFC member and a filmmaker. Pandit also took to Twitter to condemn the act of asking makers to remove Punjab from the title.

I as a filmmaker & a citizen of this country condemn d act of asking the producers 2 remove d word 'Punjab' from the film #UdtaPunjab. #CBFC Ashoke Pandit (@ashokepandit) June 6, 2016

I question the intelligence of the committee which has given this judgement of removing the word 'Punjab' from #UdtaPunjab. #CBFC Ashoke Pandit (@ashokepandit) June 6, 2016

I as a #CBFC member appeal to the #Chairman to take a call as a filmmaker & protect the FOE of a filmmaker.#UdtaPunjab Ashoke Pandit (@ashokepandit) June 6, 2016

The Revising Committee has claimed that the film is defamatory to Punjab and hence the name of the state be dropped from the title. In fact, earlier, Akali Dal party had also objected to the film.

Pandit did not stop here and said that if Nihalani had been the Chairman earlier, issue-based films like Salaam Bombay and Bombay would not have ever released.

"If there are 89 cuts in #UdtaPunjab, then the film loses its impression, basic ethos. You cannot massacre the film by giving so many cuts and saying that you cannot use the name of a state. All limits crossed, people will laugh at us that you can't even take the name of a place? Not a single board member who is based in Mumbai 100 percent will be involved in this mockery. Confident that this decision is taken by our chairman, we've been fighting against diktats of chairman. Decision of not allowing the word Punjab condemnable, mockery of freedom of expression of a filmmaker," Pandit told ANI on Monday. Even filmmakers like Hansal Mehta and Karan Johar came in support of Udta Punjab.

#UdtaPunjab speaks of the reality of our times....censoring reality amounts to delusion.....the fraternity has to stand by what's right!! Karan Johar (@karanjohar) June 6, 2016

What is this I'm hearing about #UdtaPunjab? Makes me very, very angry. Hansal Mehta (@mehtahansal) June 6, 2016

Can the truth defame a state? #UdtaPunjabCensored Hansal Mehta (@mehtahansal) June 6, 2016

Delusion or collusion? Why is the establishment so scared of films that mirror reality? #UdtaPunjabCensored Hansal Mehta (@mehtahansal) June 6, 2016

Udta Punjab, which stars Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Diljit Dosanjh, is a story that revolves around drug abuse in north of Punjab and how the youth there have succumbed to it. The film is set to release on June 17.