Anurag on Censor Board reshuffle: ‘It’s like wow!’

The change of guard at the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), also known as the Censor Board, has made filmmaker Anurag Kashyap a very happy man. “Kal raat se mai bahut khush tha,” he tells us. “Something you’ve been waiting for, and it suddenly happens, it’s like wow! Did this really happen? And that, too, before my film came out.” Anurag is elated by the news of incumbent CBFC chairman Pahlaj Nihalani being replaced by adman-lyricist Prasoon Joshi. The news broke two days ago.

Anurag’s long battle with Nihalani over his film Udta Punjab (2016) is well known. The filmmaker, who had produced the film on drug abuse in Punjab, reportedly approached the Information & Broadcasting Ministry after the CBFC refused to clear it for release.

Visiting Delhi for an event, Anurag sarcastically says about his new film, “Pehli baar maine aisi film banayi thi jisse mai shock karna chahta tha CBFC ko… kuchh tha hi nahi censor karne ko.”

Asked for his view on the new chief, the filmmaker says, “I might disagree with the things [Prasoon Joshi] says or does sometimes, but not all the time. Also, he’s a very open person. What’s amazing is that a dialogue [with him] is possible.”

And Nihalani? “It wasn’t a dialogue [with him] but only a monologue,” says Anurag, “where he would be the one talking; and he’d tell you what to do.” It was “a very humiliating process”.