After Jab Harry Met Sejal, another film has run into trouble with the Central Board of Film Certification over the use of the word “intercourse”. Tamil director Balaji Tharaneetharan’s Oru Pakka Kathai has been given a U rating but has not yet received formal certification because the word occurs in a scene, producer KS Srinivasan told Times of India.
“It [intercourse)] is uttered in a scene in which a female doctor asks a girl about her medical history,” he added. “There is no obscenity or vulgarity in its usage.”
The CBFC had earlier objected to the same word in the Hindi movie Jab Harry Met Sejal. The word was eventually dropped from the film.
Srinivasan told Times of India, “We were initially given the ‘U/A’ rating, and since we felt this subject deserves a ‘U’ certificate as teens need to be aware of the film’s message, we applied to the revising committee. This process, too, took time, and the revising committee members, headed by S Ve Shekher, saw our film only by June end. They praised our film and suggested a couple of cuts, but gave us the ‘U’ certificate. And they did not have any objection to the word intercourse. But the regional censor board is refusing to give us the certificate saying they need to clarify with Mumbai on the use of the word. And they have already delayed it for more than a month without providing any definite answer.”
A regional officer with the Chennai branch of the censor board told the newspaper, “There is already an issue related to the usage of the word intercourse, involving our chairmain. Generally, the executive committee (which first sees the film) and the revising committee send their reports to the chairman. And every file has to be approved by the chairman.”
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