Censor Board Beeps Out 'Condom' From Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety But Lets 'Sex' Remain

We know how our Censor Board works in its own strange ways. We often cite the now cliched example of how James Bond couldn't kiss more than a couple of seconds thanks to CBFC. We also remember the woes of Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt's Udta Punjab and the troubles the makers had to go through to get a certificate from the Board. When Pahlaj Nihalani was sacked as the chief and was replaced by Prasoon Joshi, we expected improvement in ways movies were censored. To be honest, things improved slightly, but the Censor Board still continues to stick to their archaic and mystifying ways.

Last year, Padmaavat had to go through the same trouble as Udta Punjab to get a certificate. Recently we read about how 'Hanuman' reference was muted out of Black Panther, because the board members felt that it might 'hurt religious sentiments'.

Now I saw another example of Censor Board's strange ways of censoring movies where I watched an early show of the recent Bollywood release, Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety. The romcom, directed by Luv Ranjan, has its characters speak in urban Delhi lingo and therefore has a lot of cuss words beeped out. Which we have learned to live with. But what amused me was the beeping out of the word 'condom' uttered by a character. What's even funnier is that the numerous mentions of 'sex' have been left intact.

It's like Censor Board don't mind the audience knowing about sex; but any reference to the product that prevents spread of HIV-related diseases and unwanted pregnancies is a strict no-no for the sanskaari Board.

When will we grow up?

Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety is the latest romcom (or anti-romcom, if we go into details) directed by Luv Ranjan who gave us the Pyaar Ka Punchnama series (and also the underrated but lovely Akaash Vani). The movie stars Kartik Aaryan, Nushrat Bharucha and Sunny Singh in the lead.