The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has asked for 12 cuts despite an ‘A’ certificate in Madhur Bhandarkar’s film, India Lockdown, which he shot during the pandemic. The movie uses four central characters and blends their journeys to narrate the story of people in India during the first lockdown after Coronavirus was declared a pandemic in 2020. Shweta Basu Prasad’s track in the film is about sex workers and highlights their plight during this phase. This part of the film has courted trouble.

The CBFC has directed Madhur to edit two visual scenes involving phone sex and physical relations between a sex worker and her client. The rest of the cuts have to do with the language used in the film. Madhur, who had visited the red-light area in Mumbai with Shweta as part of his research and prep, has decided to approach the revising committee for redressal.

The filmmaker says, “All these cuts are from the track that focusses on a sex worker’s life in Kamathipura. The language, I’m told, is problematic. From where I see it, it has been used to keep the story authentic and we are ready to accept an ‘A’ certificate. But removing so many words and important scenes will dilute the impact and essence of the plot. To retain the authenticity in the film, I had to keep these elements as a part of the narrative. We also had visited Kamathipura before the shoot and I have tried to stay as close to reality as possible. I am okay with the ‘A’ rating, but I have been asked to make 10 audio cuts and two visual cuts, which I feel is unacceptable. We now plan to approach the revising committee.”