Nine cuts, and half a rape scene

Aishwarya Rai’s comeback film Jazbaa gets a UA certificate from the Censor Board — but only after nine cuts and a 50 per cent edit for a rape scene

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s comeback film Jazbaa has been cleared by the Censor Board with a ‘UA’ certificate — but with as many as nine verbal cuts and a major rape sequence reduced drastically.

Says a source in the know, “There were abusive words and expletives that had to be removed. There were nine of these that the board felt had to go. Also there was a graphic rape sequence, which had to be edited by 50 per cent. This was the only way the film could get a ‘UA’ certificate.”

In Jazbaa, producer-writer-director Sanjay Gupta has cast Aishwarya as a lawyer and a traumatised mother, frantically trying to rescue her daughter from kidnappers. This is Gupta’s official remake of the Korean drama 7 Days.

To speed up the drama, the nightmarish events in the lawyer-mother’s life are narrowed down to four days in Gupta’s remake. The gritty look of the trailer has already attracted a fair bit of attention.