New Delhi: In a new move, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), commonly called the censor board, has asked the makers of the Hollywood film Ford v Ferrari to blur out bottles and glasses of alcohol.
According to a report by HuffPost India, scenes showing alcohol, both in the foreground and background, were blurred throughout the film, distracting audiences.
In a new low, the Indian censor board has asked Fox to blur alcohol bottles/glasses from James Mangold’s ‘Ford v Ferrari’ that releases in India this Friday. Looks hideous and distracting. Somebody in CBFC needs to get a drink. pic.twitter.com/sExSG5VpE5
— Ankur Pathak (@aktalkies) November 12, 2019
The same report also says the phrase ‘son of a b****’ was muted, leaving audiences confused.
While the censor board asking for brands of alcohol to be blurred is not unusual, the fact that they asked for just alcohol to be blurred as well is new. The CBFC, headed by Prasoon Joshi, is known for making controversial cuts, especially to scenes involving sex, cigarettes and alcohol.
Under the leadership of its former chief, Pahlaj Nihalani, the CBFC was constantly criticised by the public and filmmakers because of its choice of cuts. In the 2015 James Bond film, Spectre, a short kissing scene was cut out while sexist adult comedies like Mastizaade and Kya Kool Hai Hum 3 were passed with no cuts.
In the same year, the censor board asked for a shocking 94 cuts in Udta Punjab, a film about the drug problem in Punjab. After weeks of protests from the film industry and audiences, the courts had to intervene and force the board to pass the film with only one cut. Similarly, in 2017, the CBFC refused to pass Lipstick Under My Burkha, saying it was a female-oriented film with a sexual theme.
Also read: CBFC has no intellectual morality to decide what people can watch: Bombay High Court