Udta Punjab Completes 7 Years: Varun Grover CRITICISES Censor Board Members For Reducing 22-Second-Long Kissing Scenes To 16 Seconds (Details Inside)

On this day seven years ago, 'Udta Punjab' (2016) was released, and it continues to be talked about today for its controversy as well as its storyline and performances. The makers were unable to appeal to the former Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) after the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) requested around 89 edits. The producers of the Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Diljit Dosankh, and Kareena Kapoor Khan starrer had no choice but to seek the Bombay High Court, which cleared the movie with only minor changes.

A few months ago, Varun Grover, who authored the song's lyrics, 'Ud-Daa Punjab,' talked about his experience. He started off by adding, “CBFC is not a board for certification. It is a board for censoring the cinema.”(Also Read: Shahid Kapoor says that he is very proud of Alia Bhatt: She has proved that you don’t need a hero in every movie)

He added, “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 stated, “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 Bombay High Court's rules caused the scene of Gabru urinating to be zoomed in. The High Court simply requested just one cut. The Court further ordered the producers to include a lengthy disclaimer that acknowledges the government's and law enforcement efforts to combat the drug problem and states that the filmmakers do not encourage drug usage or the use of profanity.

Even Varun Grover created a short film called 'Kiss' about a director who is attempting to get his movie passed the strict censor board members. (Also Read: Priyanka Chopra plays Alia Bhatt's song Ikk Kudi on the radio in their car)

He explained, “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!’”