New Delhi: After the Censor Board chopped kissing scenes from the latest James Bond flick ‘Spectre', the Chairman Pahlaj Nihalani defended this decision during an interview to a leading daily. He said those opposing the censorship want to show everyone how they are having sex.
‘Spectre' went through four cuts, two visual and two verbal before it got a U/A certificate from the board. Apparently, the board felt that the kisses were too long for Indian audiences and asked the makers to chop them off by 20 seconds.
As this news broke out, netizens took to micro-blogging website Twitter to make fun of the decision. Many even termed this Bond as ‘Sanskaari Bond.'
Asked during the interview how it mattered if the kiss lasted ten seconds or a minute, an angry Nihalani replied, “This means you want to do sex in your house with your door open. And show to people the way you are doing sex.”
He also added that there was no mocking when the last James Bond movie ‘Skyfall' did not have even one intimate scene. “There was not a single kiss shown in Skyfall. That time no one thought of the sanskaari thing?” he said.
Nihalani is facing the wrath of a huge section of the film industry. This group of people want him to be removed as Censor Board chief. Media reports suggest that there is a revolt brewing within the industry where Nihalani is alleged to be a stooge of the central government.
Nihalani was also accused of being a hypocrite during the interview. The interviewer reminded him that in 1994 he had made a movie ‘Andaaz' starring Anil Kapoor. The song, which had the words 'Khada hai, khada hai, khada hai', was termed vulgar by the then Censor Board and removed from the movie. When he was asked why he made such an obscene song, Nihalani said it was his freedom of expression.
He was told that he does not give the same luxury to everyone else who want their movies to express their feelings. Does this make him a man of double standards? “Did we not clear Masaan? And Margarita with a Straw? You have double standards in your mind,” retorted the CBFC chief.
