Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s film Babumoshai Bandookbaaz has been given 48 cuts by the censor board despite getting an ‘A’ certificate and the actor says the abuses in the movie are justified to make the characters look authentic.
Directed by Kushan Nandy, Babumoshai Bandookbaaz a quirky story about a small-time contract killer portrayed by Nawazuddin. It has run into trouble with the Central Board of Film Certification, which has raised objections to the cuss words and some scenes in the film.
“When conditions (referring to CBFC rules) are such that you are scared to even improvise and say something wrong, that’s a scary situation to be in,” Nawazuddin told PTI in Mumbai during a press conference.
The actor said in a film, characters will speak the language of the area as it makes them authentic.
“Sometimes abuses are added to give weight to the character and add a local flavour. The more local the film is, the more global it will be. If you washout films like this, then our outcome on the international platform will be zero,” he said.
Filmmakers Abhishek Chaubey, Vikramaditya Motwane and Alankrita Shrivastav also came out in support of Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
Chaubey, who had run into trouble with the censor board last year with his film Udta Punjab, said the CBFC is trying to create a sense of fear among filmmakers.
“There is a sense of fear which they’ve (CBFC) created in the minds of directors and producers that ‘lets not let them make the films they want and only make the films which we want to see.’ This is the their mindset, our lives depend on their personal likes and dislikes. It’s unfair. filmmakers and filmmaking are being affected a lot,” Chaubey told PTI.
Rahul Dholakia, Sudhir Mishra, Satish Kaushik, Anubhav Sinha, Honey Trehan were also present at the event.
Satish Kaushik said the board shouldn’t curb the freedom of filmmakers.
“Give freedom to filmmakers, remove their fears. They should be fearless How can you make a film with fear? There has been no update about the Shyam Benegal committee report. Sometimes we feel things are going good but then again you hear such things.”
Alankrita, whose film Lipstick Under My Burkha was denied certification, said censorship isn’t required at all in a democratic country.
“We need to get rid of it otherwise we won’t be able to tell the stories freely at all. Whether it was ‘Udta Punjab’ or ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’, it keeps on happening. It seems nothing is changing,” she said.
Dholakia said, “I&B ministers come and go but Pahlaj Nihalani is still there. Everyone has protested but nothing has happened. Obviously, he is following someone’s order and that needs to be addressed.”
The makers of Babumoshai Bandookbaaz are disappointed with the 48 cuts given by the CBFC and are even planning to approach the Tribunal.
Here’s the trailer:
(Feature Image Source: YouTube/Screengrab)
