007 censored: Make way for Sanskari James Bond

It’s normal for Pakistan’s Censor Board to come under fire for its peculiar objections but even we haven’t managed to scale it down to this level despite many an aunty going ‘haw!’ inside cinema halls. The Central Board of Film Certification in India has ordered that four scenes in the new James Bond outing, Spectre, be trimmed including two kissing sequences between Daniel Craig and Monica Belluci for being excessively long, and for featuring a couple of expletives.

Ever since the induction of the new government, the Indian Censor Board has become notoriously stringent over graphic, sexual content and the use of cuss words. It was only earlier this year that a list banning 25 expletives, used in films, was released much to the filmmakers’ agitation, who have time and again labeled the censor board as an outdated and bureaucratic irritation. However, the recommended cuts for the 007 film come across as highly hypocritical for kissing is rather common in Hindi films. Case in point: a myriad of Emraan Hashmi/Mahesh Bhatt films.

Meanwhile, on Twitter, the board’s decision has led to a series of satirical hashtags ridiculing the proposed cuts including #SanskariJamesBond along with rib-tickling memes showing Monica Belluci covered in a traditional Indian wedding dress covered from head-to-toe. Even media and journalists have chimed in with an entire article mocking the scenario by stating that the Censor Board has also asked that martinis be replaced with water in the film. Filmmaker Shirish Kunder also tweeted, “James Bond’s women must be feeling so safe now that our Censor Board is there to protect their honor from that creep.”

Post the cuts, the film has been given a U/A certificate and will be releasing across India, today.