Give 'Udta Punjab' certificate in 48 hours: Bombay high court orders CBFC

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Monday ordered CBFC to award certificate to 'Udta Punjab'.  The court has ordered the release of the movie with just 1 cut. The court asked the filmmakers to delete the urination scene and revise the disclaimer. Making a tough observation in the ongoing controversy involving ‘Udta Punjab’, the court ruled that nobody can dictate a filmmaker about the content of his film. The court said it didn’t find anything in the film that showed Punjab in bad light or affected the sovereignty or integrity of India as claimed by CBFC. The court further said CBFC was not empowered by law to censor films as the word censor was not included in the Cinematograph Act. “CBFC's powers to cut, delete or change scenes must be consistently in consonance with provisions of the Constitution and Supreme Court order,” the court observed. 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. The censor board 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 told reporters on the sidelines of a function here. Nihalani, who was in the eye of the storm over suggesting a very large number of cuts, 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)”.