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A swift wave of public outrage has since adopted on-line, with exasperated followers mentioning the absurdity of censoring a kiss in a superhero flick whereas Indian movies proceed to get away with far sleazier depictions of girls, usually below the guise of custom or mass enchantment.
But the uproar surrounding Superman is hardly an remoted incident; fairly, it’s simply the newest cape caught within the CBFC’s scissors. One needn’t look far down the reducing room flooring to search out Dev Patel’s Monkey Man, a politically loaded revenge saga set in a dystopian India, which discovered itself ghosted by the certification board. Universal Pictures had already pre-emptively cleaned home, swapping saffron banners for pink and scrubbing out scenes that drew strains between faith and violence. Yet, regardless of these concessions, the movie nonetheless didn’t safe a screening date with the CBFC. No official ban was declared, however the movie was by no means licensed both. Industry insiders described the transfer as a covert type of bureaucratic censorship: by not formally rejecting the movie, the board averted controversy whereas nonetheless preserving it out of theatres. For Indian audiences, Monkey Man stays unseen, and, maybe extra tellingly, unstated.
Shortly after, The Apprentice, Ali Abbasi’s thorny biopic on Donald Trump, arrived on the CBFC’s doorstep, solely to be promptly taken aside. The board demanded that nude scenes be axed, a graphic sexual assault between Trump and his then-wife Ivana trimmed by 75%, and the time period “Negro” eliminated altogether. They additionally threw within the regular public service bulletins about smoking and ingesting for good measure. Not mincing phrases, Abbasi stated the world wanted a “vaccine in opposition to censorship,” arguing that what was left of his movie after CBFC’s pruning barely resembled the one he made.
Sometimes, movies disappear with out a hint. Sean Baker’s indie drama Anora, broadly celebrated on the worldwide awards circuit and finally topped Best Picture on the Oscars 2025, was initially slated for a November 2024 launch in India. Then it vanished into the limbo identified to Indian cinephiles as “TBA” — the all-too-familiar acknowledgement that the movie probably didn’t clear the CBFC’s ethical radar. Featuring the story of a Brooklyn-based stripper marrying right into a Russian oligarchy, Anora might have been too risqué, too complicated, or just too uncomfortable, for certification.
A barely extra native ghosting was with Santosh, a blistering Hindi-language drama made by an Indian solid and crew below a UK manufacturing banner. The movie stormed Cannes in 2024, profitable reward and main award nominations, solely to be stonewalled in its personal yard. The CBFC didn’t technically ban Santosh, however as a substitute, despatched again a laundry record of edits so sweeping and obscure, director Sandhya Suri referred to as them “unattainable” to implement. While specifics stay below wraps due to authorized restrictions, it’s speculated what rattled the board was the movie’s interrogation of India’s police power, gendered violence, and systemic rot.
But even filmmakers who play by the principles aren’t protected. Halina Reijn’s Babygirl, an erotic drama starring Nicole Kidman, was formally granted an A (Adults Only) certificates, solely to be carved up anyway. Over three minutes of “problematic” content material had been snipped, together with intimate visuals and spicy language, prompting critics to ask what function an grownup certification serves if adults nonetheless wanted babysitting? The paradox of certifying movies for adults after which treating those self same adults as incapable of processing tough or sensual materials continues to canine the board’s credibility.
In an identical vein, Brady Corbet’s Oscar-winning The Brutalist, starring Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce, was launched in India with roughly one minute of nudity and sexual content material eliminated. While the cuts had been much less dramatic than these confronted by different movies, Pearce himself commented that such interventions may undermine a movie’s emotional weight and creative intent. A minute could also be brief, however as Pearce famous, “Sometimes it’s the uncomfortable components that assist the story land.”
Of course, nothing fairly captured the board’s deeply confused ethical compass like Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. The movie wad launched with its runtime intact, however not its integrity. Sex and nudity had been blotted out with the notorious “CGI black gown,” cigarette smoke disappeared right into a puff of denial, and a pivotal scene that includes Florence Pugh and a recitation of the Bhagavad Gita sparked outrage from authorities officers and Hindu nationalist teams. Never thoughts that the movie is a few man grappling with the morality of making the atomic bomb, for the actual disaster apparently, was quoting scripture throughout intercourse. And although the audio remained, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting questioned how the scene made it by way of within the first place.
Other Oscar hopefuls, similar to Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, additionally fell prey to Indian censorship. The CBFC muted a number of anti-Semitic slurs within the movie that, in context, mirrored the protagonist’s expertise of hate and bullying. In doing so, the board managed to rob the movie of its sting, all in service of a extra “palatable” viewing expertise.
But maybe probably the most obvious episode of the CBFC’s vigilance in current reminiscence got here courtesy of Brad Pitt’s F1. The board reportedly requested the filmmakers to digitally exchange a center finger emoji with a fist emoji. Yes, it appears we’re censoring emojis now.
Around the identical time, Marvel’s Thunderbolts additionally confronted the wrath of the mute button with 5 expletives — “a**,” “a**gap,” “d**ks,” “b***h” and “pr**okay” — scrubbed. All this even supposing the movie was aimed squarely at older teenagers and younger adults.
The historical past of CBFC’s edits is lengthy and sometimes baffling. From blurring alcohol bottles in Ford v Ferrari to eradicating references to Kashmir from Mission: Impossible – Fallout, the board’s choices have persistently mirrored a need to regulate what audiences watch and the way they interpret it. What might have began as a well-meaning try to protect harmless eyes has now curdled right into a mechanism of cultural and political gatekeeping.
In Superman, the lacking kiss may appear trivial, however in a movie that fairly actually flies the flag for reality and justice, it speaks volumes.
