After suggesting as many as 90 cuts for Anurag Kashyap's Udta Punjab in June, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) objected to the premise of his upcoming production, Haraamkhor. The Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Shweta Tripathi-starrer revolves around a teacher-student romance and the Censor Board refused to certify it. The makers approached the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) in August, which cleared the film with a U/A certificate on Wednesday.

Confirming the same, coproducer Guneet Monga told Mirror, “After the Examining Committee of the CBFC refused to certify our film, we appealed to the Revising Committee in July and were handed an 'A' certificate and two cuts which we were not ready to accept as it was impacting the story.“

The Revising Committee order read: 'Wherever the teacher (Shyam) hits woman or women to be reduced to flash so that the details are not shown.' Second: 'The love making scenes between the teacher and student (Shyam and Sandhya) to be reduced to flash.' “It's not that we haven't heard about such things and as filmmakers we too have handled the subject delicately,“ Guneet argues.

So, then they reached out to the Tribunal. It was a long battle which affected them financially, but the Tribunal has cleared the film after suggesting they edit the love-making scenes between Sandhya and Shyam by 50 per cent and the climax by 50 per cent along with a disclaimer at the beginning and a warning while depicting the three lovemaking scenes. “While the CBFC had refused to certify the film, the Tribunal after watching it felt that it could be used to propagate a social message and educate girls about their rights. They thought it would be educative for schoolgoing girls and stated this in their order. It's a landmark judgement,“ ex ults Guneet.