CBFC Beeps out Barkha ‘Dutt’ in Sonakshi’s ‘Noor’; Barkha Responds

Referring to real-life characters without their consent is apparently not allowed.

Eccentric is the only way we can define some of the censor board’s recent decisions. It’s okay to show Ryan Reynold’s bare blurred bum in the Deadpool 2 trailer but not okay to show a woman’s clothed bum in Fast & Furious 8 because, according to the censor board, it looks grotesque in 3D (so why not preserve the bum in the 2D prints?)

Now a reference to Barkha Dutt — Sonakshi Sinha plays a journalist in the film who idolises Ms Dutt — the surname ‘Dutt’ has been asked to be edited out.

Explaining the omission a member of the CBFC offers:

Referring to real-life characters without their consent is not allowed. We gave them the option of either get the well-known journalist’s permission or to beep out the direct reference to her.

A CBFC Member

When we see Noor, we will now hear ‘Barkha’ being mentioned without the ‘Dutt’.

Noor, that’s Sonakshi Sinha, aspires to be like Barkha and looks up to her. They cut the ‘Dutt’ so as not to refer to a living person. We are okay with that. Barkha is as iconic for any female journalist as Lata Mangeshkar is to a female singer or Sachin Tendulkar is to any cricketer.

Sunhil Sippy, Director, Noor

When contacted, Barkha Dutt wanted to know in which context her name was used and removed. When told ,she found the whole thing “quite bizarre.”

I haven’t seen the film but from what I understand the two references to me are very complimentary and in the context of a young woman who aspires to be a journalist. So really, I am unable to understand what part of this lends itself to censorship. Seems rather bizarre for the censor board to decide for the filmmakers or for me since I am a public person after all, and this reference hardly seems anything the censor board should have a view on. Rather whimsical I think to now make my name a subject of censorship!

Barkha Dutt, Journalist

The veteran journalist also tweeted about it:

Barkha without the Dutt dear Censor Board is kinda like poori minus channa. More seriously, how bizarre is this decision !! https://t.co/qPYSNLOqEy

— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) April 14, 2017

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