S.S. Rajamouli’s mythological epic Baahubali is making box office history across the world. However, the film will get a limited audience in Singapore. The censor board in Singapore has granted Baahubali 2: The Conclusion an NC16 certification, which means the film is not accessible to any viewers under the age of 16.
Pahlaj Nihalani, the censor chief in India, says, “We granted Baahubali 2 with a ‘UA’ with virtually no cuts. In Singapore, they found Baahubali to be too violent. The war scenes — specially of soldiers being beheaded — was taken to be excessively gruesome by Singapore censor board. In many countries of Asia and Europe, Bollywood films get more adult certificates than we do in India.”
Nihalani admits this discrepancy has to do partly with cultural and partly practical reasons. “Our mythology and religious scriptures have a lot of violent images of rakshasas being beheaded, for instance. So our children grow up hearing these tales of violence. They are not scared by mythological mayhem. Also, in India censorship is about pacifying sentiments rather than doing the right things. If we cut one shot of a beheading, we are branded anti-religious. If we shorten the duration of a kiss, we are prudes. And if we delete a shot of boy masturbating to another boy (in Moonlight) we are branded homophobic.”
