All the cuts the CBFC wants from ‘Udta Punjab’: City names, drug use visuals, Shahid peeing

Just what are the specific cuts the Central Board of Film Certification wants from Udta Punjab before they grant it its ‘A’ certificate prior to its 17 June release? A report by The Indian Express lists out all the cuts the censor board wants. These include: [caption id=“attachment_2824484” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kareena Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor an Alia Bhatt in ‘Udta Punjab’[/caption] Remove or mute all references to Punjab from the film, including its title, dialogues, and a close-up shot of a signboard. Remove references to names of cities like Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Ludhiana and Moga from all the dialogues. Include a disclaimer at the start of the film that reads: “The film focuses on the rising menace of drugs and the war against drugs and is an attempt to show the ill-effects of drugs on today’s youth and social fabric. We acknowledge the battle against drugs being fought by the government and the police. But this battle can’t be won unless the people of India unite against the menace.” Cut close-up shots of characters injecting themselves with drugs. Cut dialogue in which a dog is referred to as “Jacky Chain”. Remove these words from the film: election, MP, party, MLA, parliament, harami. Cut visuals of Shahid Kapoor urinating and a “sardar scratching his side”. News about the CBFC’s “requirements” emerged when the board’s review committees’ report was finally made available to the Udta Punjab team on Wednesday, after the film’s co-producers, Phantom Films, approached the Bombay High Court. Meanwhile, Anurag Kashyap said the Udta Punjab team has appealed to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT), after the Bombay High Court order helped them receive the official letter from the CBFC informing them about the cuts. “Today (Wednesday) morning Pahlaj ji (Nihalani) came up with new allegations. The first thing he said was that on Monday his certificate was ready and that none of us went to pick it up. Yesterday (Tuesday), we sent them a legal letter to give us the official statement which his office signed and accepted. We don’t want such a man as our censor board chief. We didn’t get it yesterday, today we went to the high court. After the first hearing, we got the letter of cuts. We immediately applied to the FCAT, whose presiding officer is now available till June 16. We are going to request them to give us a window before that date. We’ll have to follow and see what happens,” Anurag said at a press conference organised by the Indian Film and Television Directors’ Association (IFTDA). Anurag has ruled out delaying the release of the film. — With IANS inputs