Baahubali 2 deemed too violent for audiences below 16 years of age, by Singapore censors

As SS Rajamouli’s war epic Baahubali 2: The Conclusion rages on at the global box office, it received only a NC16 certification in Singapore, implying that children below 16 years of age will not be permitted to watch the film. News 18 reports that the reason behind the same was that the film certification board of Singapore found the war scenes extremely violent, deeming it unfit for children’s consumption. The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chief Pahlaj Nihalani has spelled out the reason behind the certification of the film in Singapore. Pinkvilla quotes him as saying, “We granted Baahubali 2: The Conclusion a ‘U/A’ with virtually no cuts. In Singapore, they found Baahubali too violent. The war scenes, specially of soldiers being beheaded, were taken to be excessively gruesome by their censor board. Our mythology and religious scriptures have a lot of violent images of rakshasas being beheaded, etc. So, our children grow up hearing these tales of violence. They are not scared by mythological mayhem.” He also used this example to show how ’liberal’ censorship in India is. The same report quotes him as saying, “In many countries of Asia and Europe, more Bollywood films get ‘A’ certificate than we do in India. Also, in India censorship is about pacifying sentiments rather than doing the right things. If we cut one shot of a beheading we are branded anti-religious. If we shorten the duration of a kiss we are prudes. And if we delete a shot of boy masturbating another boy (in Moonlight) we are branded homophobic.” Another recent example of this strict certification in Singapore was that of Bill Condom’s musical romantic fantasy film Beauty and the Beast earlier this year. It was given adult certification because of the presence of a homosexual character who merely had a supporting role in the film.