Former chairperson of the Central Bureau of Film Certification Pahlaj Nihalani alleged that his predecessor in the position, actor Sharmila Tagore, passed the film Omkara without cuts because her son Saif Ali Khan was a part of the cast. He also claimed that Shah Rukh Khan himself agreed to censoring the word ‘intercourse’ from the trailer of his film Jab Harry Met Sejal. Nihalani’s tenure as CBFC chairperson was marred by controversy; most notably, under his leadership, the board suggested nearly 100 cuts in the film Udta Punjab.
In an interview with Siddharth Kannan, he said that he has no regrets with the way he ran the board, from 2015 to 2017. “I never allowed myself to be pressured by the government. I passed films on merit alone. They didn’t want the title ‘Udta Punjab’ to be passed, and I threatened to resign… I don’t have any regrets. I’ve done my work with honesty. To this day, people appreciate my work in CBFC…”
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Nihalani said that the guidelines that he issued after taking over as CBFC chairperson was a helpful gesture as it would save producer time and money in remixing and editing their films after cuts had been suggested. “It was misinterpreted by the media… Before that, during Sharmila Tagore’s tenure, the film Omkara was passed because her son Saif Ali Khan was in it. People in the board accepted bribes to pass certain films without cuts. They went against the guidelines, I just made sure the rules were followed.”
Asked about the word ‘intercourse’ being censored in the trailer for Imtiaz Ali’s Jab Harry Met Sejal, starring SRK and Anushka Sharma, Nihalani said, “I spoke to Shah Rukh about this, he said, ‘Cut it’.” Asked if Shah Rukh himself gave him a go-ahead to demand the cut, Nihalani said, “There was only one cut, I told him to send another version or accept the cut, and he said, ‘Okay, cut it’. He was fine with it. His films don’t have any vulgarity anyway. The media targeted me because I was controversial.”
Before becoming the CBFC chairperson, Nihalani was associated with several B-grade movies in a producorial capacity. His last couple of film production were the erotic thriller Julie 2 and the comedy Rangeela Raja.
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