CBFC DIDN'T WANT CUSS WORDS CUT FROM VEERE DI...
CBFC member Vani Tripathi Tikoo speaks up on the controversy surrounding Veere Di Wedding
Do you think a film like Veere Di Wedding would have seen the light of day a couple of years ago?” asks actor and member of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), Vani Tripathi Tikoo. Her comment is in response to the controversy brought on by a Mid-Day report which stated that CBFC suggested alternatives to the cuss words used in the film.
Dismissing the report, a baffled Vani clarifies, “I know from the board that no deletions were asked for cuss words. It was left to the filmmakers. [There were] no deletions, modifications, nothing as far as language or cuss words are concerned. If CBFC would have wanted to remove the cuss words, do yo think they would have been there in the film? Unless they (filmmakers) would have asked for re-certification or the revising committee. Peop [even] messaged us saying, ‘How dare your certify Veere Di Wedding?’ We maintained complete silence on this.”
While there is a process of film certification across the globe, Vani asks why is it that “certified content is debated only in India”. “We don’t debate, but just badger certification, as if it’s some kind of autocratic military rule. The present board is one of the most democratic spaces of certification I have ever seen,” she asserts.
Tikoo says that the board has been “quietly certifying films” and trying to “create a dialogue”.
“It’s become some kind of strange norm [that] filmmakers have again gone back to the diatribe of using CBFC for their marketing strategy. [With] the kind of pace that has been prevailing f th t th it i unacceptable to us. Everybody saw the way we handled Padmaavat (2018). There is a very deep thinking which is emerging within the board. The sincere members of the board now [are] mending bridges with the industry by creating a quiet kind of dialogue,” she says.
Tikoo also admits to having “trouble in the last board” when it was led by producer Pahlaj Nihalani.
“I was also part of it, and aware of the conundrum that used to happen. Now, we think
’ t k d ki hard to bring some kind of semblance as far as content and cinema are concerned. If we go back to square one, then we’ll also re-think what we will do with films, because we are getting disappointed with the way things are going,” says Tikoo, also denying banning Love, Simon in India, an American movie with a gay protagonist, and accuses the producers of creating a controversy.
The response from the team of Veere Di Wedding was still awaited at the time of going to
I know from the board that no deletions were asked for cuss words. It was left to the filmmakers.
VANI TRIPATHI TIKOO ACTOR AND MEMBER OF CENTRAL BOARD OF FILM CERTIFICATION (CBFC)