By Subhash K Jha
One would think Imtiaz Ali’s musical odyssey about a small-town boy’s journey from anonymity to rock-stadium superstardom on the wings of love, would have flown through the censorboard.
Not so! This week the censorboard viewed the much-awaited film that opens next week, and clamped down on certain audio and visual portions of the film.
After Ali and the film’s producers agreed to make the required deletions the censorboard passed the film with a UA certificate.
On investigation the changes ordered by the censorboard included the muting (beeping no longer allowed) of the words “sex” and “bastard” in the soundtrack…words that commonly occur in our films and would’ve been allowed if the Rockstar team had agreed to an ‘Adults’ certificate.
Likewise the Hindi expletive word ‘chutiya’ which apparently Ranbir Kapoor’s character uses whenever he’s emotionally aggravated, has been muted wherever it occurs.
Again, the word, a common Hindi expletive in the films of Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bhardwaj and the other purveyors of cowbelt bhasha, was not peemissible in a film passed for kids with parental guidance.
Most notable of all is the censorboard’s instruction for Rockstar’s
clearance, to do away with a reference to Tibetan freedom from Chinese
dominion.
Apparently Imtiaz Ali has been asked to do away with a flag in the film that reads ‘Free Tibet’
Says a source, “Rockstar has been given two options regarding the flag that reads ‘Free Tibet’. Either they can delete or blur the visual of the flag. ”
This is a primary example of the Indian government’s blurred ambiguous view of Tibet’s autonomy, and how this reflects on cinema in our country.
“Not that there are too many Bollywood films that would dare to take a stand on a sensitive political issue like Tibet. Rockstar does. The censorboard has asked for its removal, ” says a source.
The CEO of the censorboard Pankaja Thakur confirmed the alterations in Rockstar.
Courtesy: santabanta
One would think Imtiaz Ali’s musical odyssey about a small-town boy’s journey from anonymity to rock-stadium superstardom on the wings of love, would have flown through the censorboard.
Not so! This week the censorboard viewed the much-awaited film that opens next week, and clamped down on certain audio and visual portions of the film.
After Ali and the film’s producers agreed to make the required deletions the censorboard passed the film with a UA certificate.
On investigation the changes ordered by the censorboard included the muting (beeping no longer allowed) of the words “sex” and “bastard” in the soundtrack…words that commonly occur in our films and would’ve been allowed if the Rockstar team had agreed to an ‘Adults’ certificate.
Likewise the Hindi expletive word ‘chutiya’ which apparently Ranbir Kapoor’s character uses whenever he’s emotionally aggravated, has been muted wherever it occurs.
Again, the word, a common Hindi expletive in the films of Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bhardwaj and the other purveyors of cowbelt bhasha, was not peemissible in a film passed for kids with parental guidance.
Most notable of all is the censorboard’s instruction for Rockstar’s
clearance, to do away with a reference to Tibetan freedom from Chinese
dominion. Apparently Imtiaz Ali has been asked to do away with a flag in the film that reads ‘Free Tibet’
Says a source, “Rockstar has been given two options regarding the flag that reads ‘Free Tibet’. Either they can delete or blur the visual of the flag. ”
This is a primary example of the Indian government’s blurred ambiguous view of Tibet’s autonomy, and how this reflects on cinema in our country.
“Not that there are too many Bollywood films that would dare to take a stand on a sensitive political issue like Tibet. Rockstar does. The censorboard has asked for its removal, ” says a source.
The CEO of the censorboard Pankaja Thakur confirmed the alterations in Rockstar.
Courtesy: santabanta
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