Film about Nehru's love affair with Edwina Mountbatten shelved

A controversial Hollywood film based on the relationship between India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten, the wife of Britain's last Viceroy, has been temporarily shelved.

India bans 'Nehru and Mountbatten love scenes' from film
Jawaharlal Nehru escorts Countess Mountbatten round the gardens in New Delhi.

The Indian government had given permission for the movie, Indian Summer, starring Cate Blanchett and Hugh Grant, to be filmed on location there but only if physically intimate scenes were removed.

Now, Universal Pictures has postponed plans for filming because of the scale of the budget, thought to have been between $30 million (£18 million) and $40 million (£24 million).

Director Joe Wright is said to have considered making the film for less than $30 million (£18 million) before deciding to wait for more favourable financial conditions.

There were also concerns over how intimate the portrayal of the relationship between the two characters based on Nehru and the Vicereine should be.

The nature of Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten's relationship is still hotly contested in India, where many prefer to believe the "lonely widower" and the adventurous Vicereine were devoted but platonic friends.

Mr Wright, whose credits include Atonement and Pride and Prejudice, told Variety magazine: "We were in between a rock and a hard place. The Indian government wanted us to make less of the love story while the studio wanted us to make more of the love story."

The film is based on Alex Von Tunzelmann's book Indian Summer, The Secret History of the End of Empire, which tells the story of Nehru and Lady Mountbatten's close friendship during the Mountbattens' return to India for the handover and partition in 1947.

All foreign films shot in India must be approved by a vetting committee which screens the script to make sure "nothing detrimental to the image of India or the Indian people is shot or included in the film".