Baahubali 2 gets an ‘A’ certificate in Singapore!

SS Rajamouli’s directorial Baahubali 2: The Conclusion has taken the global movie fraternity by storm. In a much unexpected turn of events, the film has taken over the major Hollywood flicks such as the Tom Hanks–Emma Watson starrer The Circle at the US box office.

As the magnum opus is racing towards the 1500 crore mark, Singapore is posing to be a major speed bump in its dream run!

The censor board in Singapore has granted the Rajamouli directorial a NC16 certificate, which means that no individual under the age of 16 can watch the film without parental guidance, courtesy the gruesome war scenes where one character or the other is getting beheaded at any given time.

CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani explains the reason in detail behind Singapore’s decision by saying “We granted Baahubali 2: The Conclusion a ‘UA’ with virtually no cuts. In Singapore, they found Baahubali too violent. The war scenes, especially of soldiers being beheaded, were taken to be excessively gruesome by their censor board. In many countries of Asia and Europe, more Bollywood films get ‘A’ certificate than we do in India.”

To this, he added “Our mythology and religious scriptures have a lot of violent images of rakshasas being beheaded, etc. So, our children grow up hearing these tales of violence. They are not scared by mythological mayhem. Also, in India censorship is about pacifying sentiments rather than doing the right things. If we cut one shot of a beheading we are branded anti-religious. If we shorten the duration of a kiss we are prudes. And if we delete a shot of boy masturbating another boy (in Moonlight) we are branded homophobic.”

You can clearly see Mr. Nihalani playing the victim card here. However, this is not the first time he has done so. Back in the day, he had tried playing the same trick during the Dangal controversy .

Although the reasons are understandable, it is sad to see that the youngsters of Singapore won’t get to witness the magnum opus easily!