Controversy over Udta Punjab

Bollywood film ‘Udta Punjab’ seems to be running on more and more controversy every day. The movie is based on the widespread drug problem in BJP-SAD ruled Punjab. Now even the political parties are trying to use the situation to get political support as the Assembly poll is scheduled next year in the State.

The cuts made by Censor Board were opposed by the film producer and director. They alleged that Censor Board’s chief Pahlaj Nihalani is doing the cuts for the sake of government.

It has been reported that the Censor Board made as many as 12 cuts in the film. However, Nihalani apparently wanted to remove all objectionable from the film.

Many are saying that the Government doesn’t want Punjab to be portrayed in a bad light with elections coming up. It is being said that the ruling alliance does not want to lose its credibility among people.

Many cuts were made to the film, here is a list of all the things that were cut.

The signboard of Punjab was shown at the start of the film. This has been cut by the board. The Censor Board also wants the producer-director to remove all reference related with Punjab from the dialogues and songs of the film. This includes even the names of cities.

The drug references made in the first song were asked to be removed by the board. The word ‘Chitta’ was also asked to be removed in the third song.

Nihalani stated that he is not happy about the abusive words in the film and ordered to remove those words.

According to sources, the director and producer have been told to even remove words like MP, Parliament and election.

A scene in a song where Sardar was shown scratching was asked to be removed.

CBFC made an objection to a scene where Tomi (Shahid Kapoor) is seen urinating in public.

Several controversial dialogues of the film were also opposed by the CBFC.

Image Credit: Sakshi Kothari / CC BY-SA 4.0 <>, via Wikimedia Commons

Image Reference: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Satluj_river_punjab.jpg