Censor Board chief says certifying ‘Titli was ‘a mistake’

Mumbai: The team of the hard-hitting intensely violent film ‘Titli’ has hit out at the censor board with a video entitled 'Censor Qtiyapa' where director Kanu Behl is shown in the company of other more experienced avante garde filmmakers like Sudhir Mishra, Vasan Bala, Hansal Mehta, Mahesh Bhatt, Ajay Bahl, Dibakar Bannerjee, all ‘advising’ the poor harassed censor-challenged director Kanu Behl on how to overcome the hurdles put forward by the censor board.

The viral video has not gone down well with the Censor Board.

The censor chief Pahlaj says the satire on censorship featuring Dibakar, Sudhir Mishra, Hansal Mehta and others, is ill informed and in bad taste. “We went out of our way to certify Titli with the least amount of cuts. If we had followed I & B guidelines we’d have to cut nearly 30 percent of the film. But because the content is powerful and relevant we allowed many very raw and stark scenes and dialogues to remain. We even suggested substitute words for the abuses that had to go. And this is how they thank us?”

Nihalani now calls the certification of 'Titli' a mistake. “The film portrays our country and the people of Delhi in such a poor light. And how many people saw the film? It opened to empty theatres.”

In his defence director Kanu Behl says, “I faced a lot of problems with the censors. The film has live sound and to get these artistes to dub key words in a live-sound film was not easy. I also don’t get the logic of allowing 20 cuss words and not 50. How does it help to limit abusive words?”