New Delhi: Backing down from its earlier stand of suggesting 89 cuts, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has cleared the controversial drug-themed Bollywood film ‘Udta Punjab’ with 13 cuts under the ‘A’ category, its chairman Pahlaj Nihalani said on Sunday.
“We have today cleared Udta Punjab under A (restricted for adult audience) category after 13 cuts,” Nihalani, who was in the eye of the storm over suggesting a very large number of cuts, said.
Nihalani said nine members of the Central Board of Film Certification watched the film and “unanimously” cleared it after the proposed 13 cuts.
“The CBFCs job is now over. It is now up to the producer to go to the court or tribunal. We will implement the order,” Nihalani said.
The Abhishek Chaubey-directed film is tentatively scheduled for release on June 17.
The CBFC’s revising committee had suggested a number of changes in the movie, which stars Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor-Khan and Diljit Dosanjh, and deals with the problem of drug addiction among youth in Punjab.
Meanwhile, responding to a query, Nihalani, who has been criticised by the film fraternity for his “dictatorial attitude” said, “those call me cheap are themselves ‘ghatia’ (lowly)”.
Nihalani clarified that he never called himself as “chamcha” (sycophant) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“There is nothing wrong in admiring the Prime Minister. I never said (I am) a chamcha,” he said.
The makers of the movie, Phantom Films had approached the Bombay High Court against an order of the revising committee of CBFC that suggested certain changes in the film.
A string of changes proposed included removing a signboard mentioning Punjab and other suggestions. High Court told the Censor Board not to be overly critical for the survival of creative people in film industry. The High Court disapproved of CBFC asking for deletion of references to "Punjab". It also asked the producers to tone down expletives and vulgar scenes as these alone cannot make a film work.
A division bench had concluded hearing arguments on the petition and is expected to pass order in the case today.
(With inputs from PTI)
