Censor Board said that the remixed version of the National Anthem, which is used in the title track, is not permissible under law. Varma has twisted the Indian national anthem Jana gana mana into Jana gana mana Rann’ hai. And following this, the movie is landed into national anthem row.
Soon after the song''s release, a Mumbai lawyer, Mahesh Vaswani, registered a complaint against the producers of Rann, director Varma, Bachchan & actor Riteish Deshmukh for allegedly distorting the lyrics of the national anthem.
"Jana gana mana rann hai. Is rann mein zakhmi hua hai Bharat ka bhaagya vidhaata" goes the lyric of song. Varma has said he has included lines of the national anthem to describe the "bad situation" of present-day India. He says his attempt to reinterpret the national anthem should not be termed as unpatriotic.
The lyrics of the title song go like this - ''Jana gana mana Rann hai, is rann mein zakhmi hua hai, bharat ka bhaagya vidhaata, Punjab Sindh Gujarat Maratha...'' In the mean time Varma has defended that title track, saying “I included the lines of the National Anthem to describe the “bad situation” of the present-day India.”
However, Varma looked unapologetic about the experiment. Addressing a press conference, RGV said, ‘''I have not tinkered with the national anthem. Tinkering would be if I would have shown it in bad light. I haven''t done anything of this sort. Through this song, we are talking about the disputes in the country but there were no intentions to ridicule anything.''
Big B is not playing Pranoy Roy in ‘Rann’: RGV
Ram Gopal Verma is known to base his characters on a myriad of real life personas. So when, RGV decided to make ''Rann'' about a media house starring the Big B himself, comparisons with existing media honchos was inevitable. But the maverick director has quashed rumours suggesting that the character of Bachchan is based on none other than Pronoy Roy.
Bachchan is a perennial favourite of Verma having worked with him in a series of films including the box office disaster ''Ram Gopal Verma Ki Aag'' to the successful ''Sarkar'' and ''Sarkar Raj'' with Bachchan''s character reportedly based on Bal Thackeray.
Bachchan who plays the owner of a leading news channel in the film said, "The film sees me as a journalist who is torn between the pull of commerce and his duty as a media person to bring out the truth."
"The film is about the media, but it does not sit in judgement. It actually puts forth the media''s side of the story. I am not trying to get back at anyone through the film and I would like everyone to stop judging my film before seeing it," said Verma.
Ram Gopal Varma attempts to expose Indian media through ‘Rann'' which stars Amitabh Bachchan, Paresh Rawal, Rajat Kapoor, Riteish Deskmukh, Manisha Koirala, Purab Kohli and Gul Panag.