Our religious sentiments are fragile, filmmakers must be sensitive: Pahlaj

Chief of CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) Pahlaj Nihalani, who has been in the news for the Udta Punjab censor controversy, has now spoken out on the troubles Jacqueline Fernandez’s Dishoom song is facing. Nihalani has said that religious sentiments in India are fragile and filmmakers must be more sensitive.

Chief of CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) Pahlaj Nihalani, who has been in the news for the Udta Punjab censor controversy, has now spoken out on the troubles Jacqueline Fernandez’s Dishoom song is facing.

After Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, chief of CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) Pahlaj Nihalani has now expressed his views of Jacqueline Fernandez’s Dishoom song. He says Indian religious sentiments are fragile and filmmakers must be sensitive.

Nihalani has said that religious sentiments in India are fragile and filmmakers must be more sensitive.

The Sikh community had reportedly complained regarding the use of a kirpan-like dagger as an accessory on Jacqueline’s short outfit in the song Sau Tarah.

Read: Now Jacqueline’s Dishoom song is offensive to Sikhs

Reacting strongly to the objection, Nihalani, who has been drawing the ire of the filmmaking community, said: “Would India’s new champions of freedom of expression who feel filmmakers must be allowed to show and say anything they like, have a solution to this? In India, religious sentiments are fragile and sensitive. They can easily get hurt and cause severe physical hurt to people at large. And people whose religious sentiments are affected are far more vigilant than we at the CBFC can ever be,” he added.

Read: How CBFC made Udta Punjab bleed

Nihalani recommends the presence of religious scholars and specialists when censoring films with sensitive religious content. “But what to do when songs and dances violate cultures and religious codes? Filmmakers must also be sensitive, he said.

The complaint, penned by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, says that Jacqueline’s act makes a “mockery of the sacredness and respect of the religious symbols of kirpan”.

Watch the song

Dishoom producer Sajid Nadiadwala and lead actor Varun Dhawan have already clarified that the accessory used is not a kirpan but an Arabic sword.

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