CBFC removes close up shots of buttocks and ‘side pose’ from Pathaan’s ‘Besharam Rang’ song

Written by on January 5, 2023

The last major controversy of 2022 was regarding the statement of Prasoon Joshi over Pathaan. The chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) admitted that the film has undergone cuts as per the rulebook.

The examining committee asked for more than 10 cuts, most of which are related to the dialogues. In two places, the word ‘RAW’ was replaced with ‘Hamare’ as per the context. ‘Langde Lulle’ was replaced by ‘Toote Foote’. The word ‘PMO’ was removed while in 13 places, ‘PM’ was replaced either by President or Minister.

Then, ‘Ashok Chakra’ was removed and it was replaced by ‘Veer Puraskar’, ‘ex-KGB’ with ‘ex-SBU’ and ‘Mrs Bharatmata’ with ‘Hamari Bharatmata’. In the dialogue ‘Isse sasti scotch nahin mili’, ‘scotch’ was replaced by ‘drink’. Then a change was made in the text that appears at one point in the film whereby ‘Black Prison, Russia’ was replaced by ‘Black Prison’.

Finally, three changes were made in the song ‘Besharam Rang’. The close up shot of buttocks, ‘side pose (partial nudity)’ shots and visuals of sensuous dance movements during the lyrics ‘Bahut tang kiya’ were removed or curtailed and replaced with ‘suitable shots’. The CBFC cut list, however, doesn’t mention how many seconds of shots have been censored. Also it is not clear whether or not the shots of the orange swimsuit, that led to an uproar, have been retained.

After these changes were made, the CBFC granted the censor certificate to the makers of Pathaan on January 2. The film secured a U/A certificate and its length, as mentioned on the certificate, is 146 minutes. In other words, Pathaan is 2 hours and 26 minutes long.

Produced by Aditya Chopra’s Yash Raj Films, Pathaan stars Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and John Abraham. It is directed by Siddharth Anand and releases on January 25, 2023.


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