Kangana Ranaut Has Agreed To Cuts Suggested By Revising Committee: CBFC Informs Bombay High Court On Emergency Film's Release

The Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC) on Monday informed the Bombay High Court that Kangana Ranaut, the producer and lead actor in the controversial film "Emergency", has agreed to the cuts/changes as suggested by the Censor Board's revising committee.

A division bench of Justices Burgess Colabawalla and Firdosh Pooniwalla has been hearing a petition filed by Zee Studios, the co-producer of the film, seeking certificate for the film's release.

On a previous hearing, the CBFC through its counsel Dr Abhinav Chandrachud had informed the bench that the revising committee has suggested certain cuts in the film after which it can be released.

The co-producers, however, sought time to figure out if the changes can be made.

When the matter was taken up for hearing on Monday, senior advocate Sharan Jagtiani appearing for Zee Studios informed the bench that Ranaut had a meeting with the CBFC and has agreed with the suggestions with regards to certain cuts to the film.

"She (Kangana) has informed us through an email that she met CBFC and has agreed with the cuts. She has said that the matter is now between her and the censor board," the counsel submitted.

However, the senior advocate said that time is required for deciding as to how the cuts are to be implemented.

To this, Chandrachud told the bench that the cuts would hardly affect even a minute of the film as these are related to some words here and there.

Asking the senior counsel to take proper instructions on the same, the bench adjourned the matter till Thursday.

The bench was hearing a plea filed by Zee Studios, seeking a direction to the CBFC to issue a certificate for the release of the film. The co-producer has contended that the censor board has initially granted an e-certificate and had also intimated Ranaut about the same through emails. However, it refused to hand over the hard copy of the certificate citing various objections to the film, raised particularly by Sikh Community.

On the other hand, the CBFC has maintained that it never issued an e-certificate and that the emails, which are being relied upon by Ranaut and Zee, were auto-generated mails. The bench had however, ordered CBFC to consider the objections, if any, to the film and take a decision by September 18.

In a previous hearing, the bench was irked to know that the CBFC has now referred the matter to its revising committee. Meanwhile, the Zee Studios alleged before the bench, that the CBFC was acting on behalf of the Central Government and was thus purposely delaying the film's release as the BJP, which is in power, doesn't want the film to impact the upcoming elections in Haryana, since it is being seen as "Anti-sikh."