Varun Grover wonders what must have led Censor Board members to reduce 22-second-long kissing scenes to 16 seconds: “At 16 seconds, some CBFC member must have involuntarily ejaculated! They must have thought, ‘Yeh hum allow nahin kar sakte. We have to protect society and theatre seats!’”

By Bollywood Hungama News Network -

June 17, 2023 - 2:20 PM IST

Udta Punjab (2016) was released on this day 7 years ago and is remembered today not just for its script and performances but also for the controversies. The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) had asked for around 89 cuts and the makers were unable to approach the then Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT). With no other option, the makers of the Shahid Kapoor-Alia Bhatt-Diljit Dosankh-Kareena Kapoor Khan starrer approached the Bombay High Court, which cleared the film with minimal cuts.

Varun Grover wonders what must have led Censor Board members to reduce 22-second-long kissing scenes to 16 seconds: “At 16 seconds, some CBFC member must have involuntarily ejaculated! They must have thought, ‘Yeh hum allow nahin kar sakte. We have to protect society and theatre seats!’”

Varun Grover, who wrote the lyrics of the song ‘Ud-Daa Punjab’ revealed about his experience, a few months ago. He began by saying, “CBFC is not a board for certification. It is a board for censoring the cinema.”

He then said, “Udta Punjab had to go through a lot. I wrote one song for the film. In one scene, Shahid Kapoor’s character Gabru is so pissed off at the audience that he actually pisses on them. So, even in the song, I had written that ‘Gaali dega jo bhi mujhko, uspe main piss karanga’.”

Varun Grover continued, “The censors freaked out when they heard the song. They were like, ‘Yeh line rakhne ka toh sawaal hi nahin uthta’ though visually, it was there in the film! They tried even cutting the said scene. It was one of the 100 cuts they had demanded. Then we arrived at a compromise. They asked us to remove the line in the song if we want to retain the visuals of it!”

Interestingly, the scene of Gabru urinating was zoomed in, as per the orders of the Bombay High Court. This was the only cut asked by the High Court. The Court also asked the producers to put in an extended disclaimer that acknowledges the government and police's fight against the drug menace, and that the filmmakers do not support the use of drugs or the use of expletives.

Interestingly, Varun Grover even made a short film, Kiss, based on a filmmaker trying to pass his film through the hard-nosed censor board members. He explained how he got the germ of the idea, “Some years ago, during the time of the iconic censor board chief Pahlaj Nihalani, there was a film, whose name I don’t remember, which faced cuts due to a kissing scene. The censor board members were like, ’22 second lamba kissing scene toh bahut zyada ho gaya. Allow nahin kar sakte. 16 second kar do’. I kept wondering about the logic behind it and how they arrived at 16 seconds. I guess all the members were sitting in a room and watching the film. At 16 seconds, probably somebody involuntarily ejaculated! Then they must have thought, ‘Yeh hum allow nahin kar sakte. Koi bhi desh mein iss film ko dekh ke accidentally (ejaculate) kar dega. We have to protect the society…and theatre seats!’”

Also Read: REVEALED: Pankaj Tripathi was Alia Bhatt’s tutor for Udta Punjab; the veteran actor trained the actress daily and helped her in mastering Jharkhandi dialect