Indian-origin Australian film maker Anupam Sharma who has known cricketer-entrepreneur Brett Lee for over a decade describes him as a “hungry artist who is always dying to perform“. So when Sharma presented Lee with the script of his debut production, a Sydney-based romcom called UnIndian, Lee instantly agreed to do it. The film follows Lee's Will, a teacher, as he falls for a divorced single-mom who is constantly pestered to marry “a nice Indian man“.

The 39-year-old bowler has previously recorded a single with Asha Bhosle in 2007 titled “You're The One For Me“ and also played himself in the 2009 Hindi film, Victory. “He was on a flight when he read the script and laughed so hard that the airhostesses wondered what he was up to. I knew I'd convince him. I was more worried about Tannishtha Chatterjee who is renowned internationally and is such a talented actress. Luckily, she loved the script and even came on-board as a dialogue and script-writer. Before it rolled, the film was announced by the Aussie Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, along with cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar, during his Mumbai visit in September, 2014. In the last two years, the film has travelled to the Cannes Film Festival and the Montreal World Film Festival, among others, before opening in Australia in 2015.

Krian Pictures' Ranjit Thakur was on a flight when he watched the film and rang Sharma up as soon as he landed. “He asked me if we have released it in India when I told him that we had been waiting for over six months to find the right distributors. Now, we are set to open in 300 Indian cinemas on August 19,“ Sharma informed Mirror. The film will simultaneously release in the Middle East and North America.

However, while the film is inching towards its release in India, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), led by Censor chief Pahlaj Nihalani, has asked Sharma to cut 65 seconds of a lovemaking sequence between Lee and Tannishtha. “It is a beautiful scene where they make love for the first time. At the same time, Tannishtha's parents are watching a spiritual leader on TV speak about opening your chakras. The music escalates as the sequences set in the two different settings unfold. It is artistically shot but the Indian Censor Board wants it to be cut,“ Sharma reveals.

Surprisingly, the CBFC has taken no objection to the title, UnIndian, which is based on the popular Australian slang, “UnAustralian“. “We have been asked to only show Lee's side profile and not his back and to remove the spiritual context. That's like ripping off the film's heartbeat,“ Sharma sighs, pointing out that the film was received with an 'M' (mature) certificate in Australia and that an 'A' certificate with cuts for a romcom would mean a great loss of audience.

Censor chief Pahlaj Nihalani refused to comment on the matter.