The Central Board of Film Certification's (CBFC) latest “irrational diktat“ has been issued to Homi Adajania. He has been asked to chop off a “vulgar“ line from his upcoming film, Finding Fanny, where Deepika tells Arjun, “I am a virgin.“

The director argued that the word (virgin) has been passed in many films like Dil Se (1998) where Preity Zinta asks Shah Rukh Khan whether he is a virgin. In 2 States (2014) too, after a steamy scene, Alia asks Arjun if this is his “first time“.

But, Homi was told that if he wanted a U/A certificate, he will have to chop off the dialogue. Reacting to the cut, Nandini Sardesai, senior Board member told Mirror, “We have a huge backlog of films which need to be watched and certified but those at the screenings are not always the ones who are supposed to do that job.“

A CBFC officer (name withheld on request) added, “Deepak, the officer who watched and censored the film, is not the right person to judge cinema. He is not even an ARO (Assistant Regional Officer). He started out as a stenographer and claims to be Personal Secretary to CEO (Rakesh Kumar) but is Personal Assistant to the Chairperson (Leela Samson).“

Deepak confirmed that he headed the screening and asked for the deletion of the word 'virgin'. “But I was not the only person at the screening. We had a committee who took the call together,“ he argued.

When asked if he is qualified to take that decision, he replied, “I will not discuss that.“

Pankaj Kapur's gaze at Dimple Kapadia's prosthetic posterior too irked Deepak. “I asked Homi to tone that scene down,“ he said.

Homi Adajania was unavailable for comment.
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Bharati Dubey (MID-DAY; August 25, 2014)

The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has cleared the English version of Homi Adajania’s Finding Fanny with a U/A certificate and two cuts. One of the deletions is a scene where Deepika Padukone’s character tells Arjun Kapoor that she is a virgin.

A source says, “Apart from the scene where Deepika is talking about her virginity, there’s one more scene where Deepika is shown pulling off her bra strap. This too has been deleted by the examining committee of the Censor Board.’’

The source adds that the committee is also said to have wanted to delete a scene where Pankaj Kapur is shown staring at Dimple Kapadia’s butt, but the makers of the film apparently argued against the move. “They finally convinced the committee to retain the scene as a flash rather than a two- minute scene. The Hindi version of the film is yet to be certified,” says the source.

The film was supposed to have a premiere on August 25, but it was postponed to September 1, since the film’s makers were not sure if it would get timely clearance from the CBFC due to its backlog of work after the arrest of CBFC CEO Rakesh Kumar.

A road trip set in Goa, Finding Fanny stars actors such as Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Dimple Kapadia, Arjun Kapoor and Deepika Padukone and it’s slated for release on September 12.
In the meantime

The makers of Punjabi film, Kaum De Heere, will move the Appellate Tribunal on Monday in order to seek certification for their film. The CBFC withdrew the film’s certificate on Thursday last week, a day before it was supposed to release, alleging that the film’s release may cause law and order problems.

Ravinder Ravi, the film’s director, says, “It is quite surprising that an objection was raised just a few days before the release. We started working on the film last September. It was shown to the examining committee in January 2014. After they refused certification, the film was shown to the revising committee and the re- revising committee which cleared the film in May 2014 with a 20- second audio cut and an A certificate. I think that it’s the political parties that are creating an issue here. I hope the tribunal clears our film.”