Shabana Azmi takes a jibe at Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani

The recent remark by eminent actress Shabana Azmi alleging that the kiss scene trimmed in the recent James Bond movie SPECTRE is arbitrary has once again raised the question about the competency of censor board members. 

Shabana Azmi made this remake during the ongoing ‘Women In The World’ summit when she was asked to comment about the status of censorship in India.

Taking a jibe at the Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani, Shabana Azim said, “Our very honourable chief of the board of film certification has recently ordered an arbitrary cut in the length of a kiss scene in James Bond film SPECTRE from its actual length to half its length, without consultation of the members.”

Mocking at the decision Shabana said, “Pahlaj Nihalani thinks 50 seconds is enough to watch a kissing scene. I don’t understand? What is the right length? If you have objection with a particular scene, simple delete it. What is the logic in showing the half baked scene?” 

Recalling her bold film FIRE, which portrayed lesbian love relation and had a passionate kiss between her and Nandita Das she said, “Despite a bold subject of love relation between same sexes my film FIRE was released with a single cut because censor board in those days understood the nuance of the scene and they just did not arbitrarily trimmed the movie.” 

Besides Shabana Azmi, there is a strong dissent against Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani and his post seems threatened!