The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) which is ideally supposed to certify films, has made it a practice to chop out portions of various movies which they find unsuitable for the audience to watch. The latest victim of their moral policing is the film, Udta Punjab. Anurag Kashyap, the producer of the film, has expressed his dissent very clearly against the dictatorship that runs in the CBFC, thanks to its head, Pahlaj Nihalani. After the press conference held by The Indian Film & Television Directors’ Association, filmmakers have openly asked Nihalani to be removed from the top job.
The list of cuts that the CBFC has asked to make in the film is published in Bombay Times and you will be quite shocked to read it. And remember, this film is already meant for an adult audience!
The list asks for deletion of all the city names and the state name, Punjab, from wherever it comes in the film.
This includes Jalandhar, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Moga and all other city names from the film. Is the CBFC trying to prove that none of the cities mentioned in the film are facing the drug problem?
Even words like ‘Election’, ‘MP’, ‘MLA’ and ‘Parliament’ are to be removed from the film.
And Pahlaj Nihalani says that he’s facing no political pressure!
The expletives were their most obvious targets and are to be removed from everywhere in the film.
Does the CBFC think that the audience is a toddler?
The CBFC has also asked to remove all the shots where drug intake is being shown.
Well, if that is the case, are filmmakers just supposed to show text written on the screen because how can you make a film about the drug problem without actually showing the problem?