CBFC now targets Sarkar 3!

Ram Gopal Varma’s much awaited directorial Sarkar 3 will be finally hitting the silver screens across the globe this Friday after keeping its fans waiting for nine long years, so needless to say, the expectations from this film are sky-high, given that the second instalment of the franchise, Sarkar Raj (2008) did not do as well as its 2005 prequel.

According to the CBFC officials, who got the first privilege of watching the film, the Ram Gopal Varma directorial certainly lives up to the expectations and deem the film to be one of Ram Gopal Varma’s best!

But, the film has also managed to offend the officials with a seemingly out-of-context reference to lord Hanuman in the movie, which they have instructed the director to remove.

Here’s what a source close to the development has to say “It’s a dialogue where Hanuman and Vivibhishana, one who burnt down Lanka and one who ruled it, two characters from Ramayan are spoken about. We’ve asked them to delete the mythological reference as it doesn’t go well with the scene of the crime in the film.”

It has to be noted that a reference to lord Hanuman isn’t the first time that has offended the censor board. Anushka Sharma’s Phillauri also had a scene where one of the leads was reciting the Hanuman Chalisa, which was duly excluded from the final cut of the film.

With respect to this development, the chairperson Pahlaj Nihalani states “We’ve to be very, very careful about religious sentiments. We’re living in ultra-sensitive times where even a passing reference to a religious figure could trigger off legal action against the film’s makers, and the CBFC. At the same time, we’re very careful to not disturb the flow of the narrative in any film. We ask for no changes that affect the story.”

We know that the prime motive of any director behind using a particular reference is to create the impact or set a tone for the rest of the story. We certainly hope that the CBFC chief has kept that in mind.