Enlarge Image
Subhash K Jha (DNA; June 29, 2015)

Cuss words are the new item songs. Recently the trailer of Sunny Deol starrer Mohala Assi released. It was full of gaalis. And now debutant Director Kanu Behl has gotten away with murder, literally. And a lot else in his much-acclaimed film Titli. The film, produced jointly by Dibakar Banerjee and Yash Raj Films, has already received much praise at various film international festivals. It was submitted for censorship last week. It was passed with an ‘A’ certificate.

Apparently, the Censor Board was shocked and “educated” by the outpouring of abuses expletives and profanities in the film.

“We are aware of a very long list of gaalis. But the ones used in Titli are in a league of their own. They go way beyond the routine insult to mothers and sisters,” says a shocked member of the censor board, confessing that his colleagues and he had never heard some of these abuses. “These are gaalis that even Anurag Kashyap and Vishal Bhardwaj are probably not aware of,” says the CBFC member.

The Censor Board member added that the CBFC was in a dilemma as to how to deal with the torrent of profanities. “If we deleted or muted the gaalis, the entire film would have gaps in the soundtrack. Besides, this is a good film. So the strong language is permissible,” says the Censor Board member. Also, the names of Dibakar Banerjee and Yash Raj gave the gaalis a certain sanction that would otherwise have been impossible.