Pahlaj Nihalani led Censor Board walks out of Maatr screening in 10 minutes?

Mumbai: The trailer of Ranveena Tandon’s comeback film ‘Maatr’ has generated curiosity among fans for of its hard-hitting content. The film, which deals with sexual abuse and a mother’s fight in bringing her daughter’s abusers to justice, has reportedly irked the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for its misleading plot.

It so happened that the makers of this revenge drama had sent the script to the board members well in advance so that they know what to expect from it. But, ten minutes into the film, members of Pahlaj Pahlani led CBFC walk out of the screening. The reason was that the script did not match its content.

A source told a daily, “We were given a copy of the screenplay prior to the screening, so we know what to expect and which areas in the storytelling need our intervention. In this case, we realised in ten minutes that we were being shown a different film from what we had been given at the script level. So the screening had to be stopped.”

Anjum Rizvi, producer of ‘Maatr’, has refuted this rumour and cited a completely different reason. “The censor screening had to be stopped due to technical reasons. We are showing the film to the Board again.”

The makers had to chop off a few scenes from the trailer and redo parts of it for getting a U/A certificate. In an interview the producer told the same daily, “Unless you show such scenes, how do you convey to the audience what the film is all about? Without these scenes, the film looks flat. CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) guidelines state that violence and blood cannot be shown in trailers seeking a ‘U’ or ‘UA’ rating. If insisted upon, it will get an ‘A’ certificate. We wanted to release the trailer in the coming week, so we had to cut some shots, redo it and finally, we got a U/A.”

What’s the actual story? Only CBFC knows.