Films That Escaped The New CBFC

Given the CBFC’s current outlook, a look at some of last year’s films that may not have made it to the big screen

No sex, no violence, no abuses, and well, don’t use the word ‘lesbian’, and of course you can’t say ‘Bombay’ either. If the CBFC’s current outlook had prevailed we probably would not have seen some of last year’s critical and commercial successes in their original form.

PK

The first look of PK featuring Aamir Khan in his birthday suit, would have been enough to get the present Censor Board all worked up. No prizes for guessing, if the new CBFC team selected by the BJP government, would have passed a film that questions religious customs (mostly Hindu) and blind faith.

Haider

Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider reportedly went through a series of cuts at the previous Censor Board’s table before it was released. The film may not have seen the light of day under the current CBFC. It would have in all likelihood been labelled anti-national, anti-Indian Army, as being sympathetic to terrorists while ignoring the condition of Kashmiri Pandits. Check out current CBFC member Ashoke Pandit’s tweets against Haider and you will get the drift.

Ragini MMS 2

They muted the word ‘lesbian’ in Dum Laga Ke Haisha, so what would they have done with Sunny Leone kissing Sandhya Mridul in Ragini MMS2? And that still leaves the film with a shower scene, a bed scene, an orgasm scene and the list goes on. It’s no 50 Shades Of Grey but there is no way this Sunny Leone film would have made it past the CBFC without being mauled even with an ‘Adults Only’ certificate.

Ugly

The infamous list of objectionable abusive words drawn up by the present CBFC could well have been made right after watching Anurag Kashyap’s Ugly. Almost every cuss word in the list is used in the film (but very much in context). Anurag Kashyap kept this film unreleased for almost a year as he wanted to fight the government’s directive of inserting anti-smoking messages in the film. A run-in with the CBFC over the use of swear words would have ensured that Ugly remained in unreleased.