Penis or peanuts?

Penis or peanuts?
A couple of months ago, Mirror (August 25) broke the news that director Homi Adajania was asked by Deepak Tandel, a Censor Board of Film Certification official, to edit out a dialogue in Finding Fanny because the Board found the word ‘virgin’ objectionable. Later, after the makers pointed out to Censor chief Leela Samson that it had earlier been passed in the trailer, the ‘I am a virgin’ statement was retained in the film.

Now, Mirror has learnt that, Saif Ali Khan starrer Happy Ending, coproduced by Dinesh Vijan, scheduled to hit the theatres on Friday, was given a U/A certificate only after three cuts. Certain expletives like ‘as*h*l*’ and ‘f****rs’ have been modified to ‘ass’ and ‘fokers’. And the word ‘naked’ has been deleted. However, a member of the cast is exultant that words like ‘penis’ and ‘ch***ya’ have not got the cut.

When this was brought to the Board’s notice, a CBFC member (on request of anonymity) said: “We let the word ch**iya pass if it isn’t uttered too often in a film. But, the word penis should never be passed.”

So, how did that happen? The CBFC member defended, “The print that was screened for us was barely audible and a lot of what was being said on screen, was pure guesswork on our part.”

Director duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK are definitely not happy to lose out on the word 'naked'. Pointing out that it is neither a slur nor an expletive, Raj elaborated that Saif (Ali Khan) in the film merely says that he likes naked girls on his bedroom wall. “Can we please get a glossary on which words to not use for a U certificate and which will get us a U/A certificate? The review system is so ad hoc,” he sighed.

When questioned on the word ‘penis’, Raj quipped, “It was actually a reference to peanuts which Ranvir Shorey and Saif have while having a drink. But perhaps it doesn’t sound like peanuts.” Yeah, sure!

The censor official’s excuse is equally feeble: “The CBFC is short on staff. Nothing other than the I & B Minister has changed, with Arun Jaitley coming in place of Prakash Javadekar.”