Gangubai Kathiawadi gets UA certificate with four cuts, scene featuring PM Nehru modified

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s latest outing Gangubai Kathiawadi had bagged the UA certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), deeming it fit to be viewed by all age groups. Starring Alia Bhatt in the lead role, the film is based on Hussain Zaidi’s book, Mafia Queens of Mumbai. The narrates the story of the madam of a brothel who rose to power and also features Ajay Devgn in a pivotal role.

The filmmaker, along with his team, visited Berlin recently for the world premiere of his movie. Gangubai Kathiawadi is slated for theatrical release on February 25.

Four major changes were made in the original edit of the film and then the CBFC awarded the UA certificate to the producers. The first change was an abusive word was replaced with ‘madarjaat’, a Bollywood Hungama report said. Without describing the scene, the report added that a 17-second-long dialogue and visuals were removed.

Another change was made in a sequence that showed Gangubai’s interaction with the former Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. A 43-second long dialogue was removed and the visuals of the late PM “embedding a rose on Gangubai’s shoulder” were modified. The makers also added disclaimers in English and Hindi, increasing the duration of each slide by five seconds. The film was reportedly certified in December last year.

In his book, Hussain Zaidi described one of Gangubai’s meetings with Nehru. He wrote, “An intrepid Gangubai is said to have thrown a proposal at him. She told him that if he was ready to make her Mrs Nehru, she would be willing to abandon her business for good. Nehru was taken aback and reprimanded her for having dared to talk to him like that. But a calm Gangubai smiled and said, ‘Don’t get angry Pradhan Mantri Ji. I just wanted to prove a point; it is always easier to preach than practise.’ Nehru remained silent.”

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The report added that the producers approached CBFC in February with two voluntary modifications in the ‘Thank You’ slate in the beginning and in the credits in the end.