Censor Board Chief, Pahlaj Nihalani‘s isn’t exactly Bollywood’s favourite person. He’s often come under the radar for his irrational censorship decisions in one too many movies. The beginning of the year saw a very ugly fight between the Censor Board and the makers of Udta Punjab play out rather publicly and of course, there was the whole ‘length of the kiss’ issue in the James Bond movie, Spectre.
In an interesting turn of events however, Befikre released with all its kissing scenes intact AND a shot of Ranveer Singh‘s bare butt (which we didn’t mind, obviously!).
Well, good sir Nihalani has a very reasonable argument for it:
We shortened Ranveer Singh’s butt shot quite a lot. Right now it’s just a glimpse, no more. What’s wrong with it? He is alone with his girlfriend in a room. They are doing what couples do when they are alone. Why is a butt shot objectionable? We’ve allowed butt shots in some recent Hollywood films. Also in Madhur Bhandarkar’s Jail.
And if that didn’t impress you, he added:
See, unlike Ae Dil Hai Mushkil , Spectre or Tamasha where the kisses were done in lengthy shots, in Befikre the kisses are scattered and largely fleeting and all over the place. They are part of the narration. As a filmmaker, I know what can be cut without hampering the flow of the narrative. In Befikre there is no way we could cut the kisses without interrupting the flow of the story. Aditya Chopra has treated the kisses as part of the story. If we removed the kisses we’d be hampering the storytelling.
Well, whatever keeps the censor ki kainchi at bay, amirite?