The controversial Indo-Canadian film, Water, is to be completed, despite a ban on continued filming in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi.

The director and writer of the script, Deepa Mehta, told a packed news conference In Delhi that she is determined to complete her film and will go anywhere in India to do so.

The state government of Uttar Pradesh ordered the suspension of filming on Water for two weeks after protests by some hardline Hindu groups and extremist political parties.

They said the depiction in the script of Hindu widows was offensive. Other groups have said the portrayal of widowhood is accurate and powerful.

Controversy vs notoriety

An earlier Deepa Mehta film, Fire, also caused controversy because it featured two sisters-in-law, rejected by their husbands, falling in love and having a sexual relationship.

Ms Mehta told the news conference that she did not like to be controversial.

Ms Mehta said politics lay behind attempts to stop her film, not real concern for the religious or community feelings of the people of India.

She said she suspected that opposition to the film began when she was not able to hand distribution rights over to a local businessman in Varanasi.

Extremist politics helped the affair snowball into something much larger and more dangerous, she said.

She told the news conference that Hindu scholars and community leaders in Varanasi had examined her script and there was nothing in the least offensive in it.

Other film makers in India have described attempts to stop the film as cultural fascism and proof of the weakness of the central government in Delhi in the face of extremist behaviour.