Justifying the 20 cuts it has demanded in Rangeela Raja, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) told Bombay high court on Wednesday that Pahlaj Nihalani’s upcoming film glorifies misogyny, adultery and rape.
“In a social milieu where we are taking strong actions on objectification of women, crimes against women, the examining committee of the CBFC has very responsibly suggested the aforesaid excisions or modifications in the film in public interest,” stated a CBFC affidavit filed in the HC.
In its affidavit, the board said it objects to how Rangeela Raja’s hero — played by Govinda — “is shown as having no repentance of his actions and crimes, including rape, adultery and treating women as a commodity for his sensual pleasures.”
The CBFC also expressed strict reservations on the film’s use of derogatory words like “kadak ghevar” to discuss women. In one of the scenes, rape is referred to as “swadishth khana” in the film.
Notably, Rangeela Raja has been written and produced by Nihalani, who was infamous for censoring films with an iron fist, mostly on grounds of vulgarity and obscenity, when he was CBFC’s chairman between 2015-2017.
Calling the cuts ordered by the CBFC absurd, Nihalani earlier told IANS, “There is no vulgarity, no double meaning dialogues. Still I’ve been asked to delete a massive number of dialogues and scenes. In one sequence my heroine asks my hero what he’d like as guru dakshina. He says Eklavya cut his thumb and gave it to his guru, to which she tells the hero he can cut her lips. There is no kiss. Only a suggestion of a kiss. Still I’ve been asked to cut out this harmless playful scene. Why? Movies like Anurag Kashyap’s Manmarziyaan are filled with kissing and lovemaking scenes and yet passed with a ‘UA.”
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