The Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC) is in an exceptionally liberal mood. They have cleared Anubhav Sinha’s stark and real film on domestic violence Thappad with a ‘U’ certificate.
This is even more liberal than what the CBFC did to Anubhav Sinha’s previous film Article 15 which was given a ‘UA’ certificate.
Says Anubhav, “I’ve never had any problem with the censor board. After Mulk was passed with only a few minor cuts I sent a thank you message to all the members of the censor board. I don’t think too many filmmakers do that. I went to the censor board thinking there would be trouble, considering the theme.”
Before submitting his hard-hitting political dramas to the CBFC Anubhav thought of consulting his censor-plagued peer. “ I even thought of consulting Anurag Kashyap who has faced censor troubles repeatedly. Finally, though, I had no trouble with the censor board at all. I want to thank them for getting the point. For Article 15 the CBFC asked for just five very basic negligible cuts, to which we agreed in less than a minute. The cuts were for foul words and they asked for a voiceover with a disclaimer, very reasonable requests that I was happy to comply with. This time for Thappad there was not a single cut that they wanted. I can’t say I have any quibbles with the CBFC.”