Actors Yami Gautam and Varun Dhawan (r) at the promotions for “Badlapur” in New Delhi, Feb. 17. (Press Trust of India)

The censor board has decided to hold consultations with various sections of society before it takes a call on the controversial list banning the use of “objectionable” and “abusive” words that was circulated by its chairperson Pahlaj Nihalani. A Press Trust of India report.

“Badlapur” director Sriram Raghavan has slammed the censor board’s list banning objectionable and abusive words in films, calling it “stupid.”

Raghavan was in the capital to promote his upcoming film, a dark revenge drama, along with its star cast Varun Dhawan, Yami Gautam, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and producer Dinesh Vijan.

“I have seen that list but I don’t know whether any other abuse will be allowed. There can be 50 more expletives. You will ask the people to write down so they will write down. So I think it is quite a stupid list because certain stories need a certain kind of language,” he told reporters here.

The director said he personally feels that “expletives don’t really add to a film.”

“We should be a little more cool about it and take every film, every story as what it is all about and judge it on that basis. You can’t say a X word can’t be used in Hindi cinema from henceforth. That does not make sense,” he said.

Vijan said “Badlapur” did not get any cut from the censor board but they had to mute abuses in three places.

The censor board has decided to hold consultations with various sections of society before it takes a call on the controversial list banning the use of “objectionable” and “abusive” words that was circulated by its chairperson Pahlaj Nihalani.

A Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) statement released here said that in the first meeting of the board after Nihalani took charge, the issue of use of abusive language was discussed and there was a unanimous view that more consultation is required.

“A list of objectionable words was compiled by Regional Officers way back in 2003. Chairman decided to circulate the same for easy reference and guidance. In the first meeting of the board held after his assumption of the charge apart from the other issues, the board also discussed the issue of ‘use of abusive language’ and it was of the unanimous view that the matter required further consultation with different sections of the society before it is implemented,” CBFC CEO Shravan Kumar was quoted in the statement as saying.

The CBFC will hold a separate meeting to deliberate on this issue, the statement said.

The Board had discussed the issue related to the list of 28 “objectionable” and “abusive” words on which Nihalani had sought a ban, in a marathon meeting, Feb. 23, where the move met with stiff opposition.

The letter by Nihalani directed its regional officers not to issue certificates to films that use words, which are abuses in Hindi and English. It has also been specified that double meaning words, violence against women and glorification of bloodshed should not be allowed.

The move to completely ban all the words in the list met with much opposition from filmmakers.

The Information and Broadcasting is also understood to have been not too pleased with controversies that were emanating from the censor board.

The ministry has however maintained that it stays away from matters related to certification.