The John Abraham-Sharvari starrer Vedaa has been in the news after its makers two weeks back announced that they are yet to get a censor certificate though they applied their film to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) well in advance. The CBFC’s Examining Committee (EC) saw the film in June-end and it was sent to the Revising Committee (RC). After the makers spoke up, the RC finally saw the film on July 29 and decided to clear the film. There were reports that not a single cut have been imposed in the film. Bollywood Hungama, however, has learned that Vedaa was subject to certain deletions and modifications by the CBFC’s RC.
To begin with, a 1-minute-16-second long modified disclaimer and voiceover were asked to be added. A dialogue with derogatory references towards women and social identity was asked to be modified. Then, a 2-minute-16-second long hanging scene was deleted. The word ‘Jodhpur’ was muted while referring to Jodhpur High Court and visuals of violence inside the court premises were asked to be reduced by 30%. By doing so, the makers had to chop off 6 minutes 15 seconds of the film.
That’s not all, a character is seen listening to an audio track on a mobile phone with Sanskrit shlokas. This song was deleted by the CBFC. An abusive word ‘behenkhor’ was replaced with ‘bana’. The CBFC also asked the makers to blur visuals of the tearing of currency notes and pieces of the currency notes. Moreover, the text information ‘Brahmin son…Shudra’s son’ was asked to be deleted.
Lastly, the makers submitted authentic references, that is newspaper articles, court judgments, religious scriptures etc. to indicate the film is inspired by true events.
In all, the CBFC deleted 9 minutes and 14 seconds of the film. Once the changes were done, Vedaa was granted a U/A certificate on August 6. The length of the film, as mentioned on the certificate, is 150 minutes. In other words, Vedaa is 2 hours and 30 minutes long. Directed by Nikkhil Advani, it releases in cinemas on August 15.
A source told Bollywood Hungama, “The Presiding Officer of the RC was Padma Shri Ramesh Patange. He is known to clear those films for which the EC has had reservations. In recent times, he also cleared the controversial film Hamare Baraah and it’s no surprise that he also passed Vedaa, subject to certain modifications.”
Also Read: Sharvari unleashes inner beast for action-packed role: “Took up Boxing to become Vedaa!”