Mumbai : It’s not been an easy journey thus far for Parzania’s director Rahul Dholakia.

His real life experiences during the 2002 Gujarat riots translated onto celluloid as Parzania, but it took him six months to get the film cleared by the censor board. The film is scheduled to hit screens on 26 January 2007.

The film shows how a 10 year old Parsi boy who went missing during the communal conflagration is yet to be found by his family. Says Dholakia, “It took six months for the film to get cleared by the censor board. A 14 member jury culled from different parts of the country watched the film before granting it the censorship certificate. Finally, the film got an ‘A’ certificate with three minor cuts.”

Dholakia says he faced hardships from the word go, since Parzania is not an outright commercial film and deals with a controversial topic. “I had to produce the film myself and raise funds without compromising on the subject.” Dholakia says he has had to shoulder the distribution responsibilities too. “PVR is distributing the film in north India and Inox is distributing it in Kolkata. We will release 60 prints all over India. In London, it will release on 23 February with 30 prints and in the US, it will release in May,” he adds.