Padmavati cleared for Dec 1 release without a single cut by British censor board

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) cleared Deepika Padukone -starrer Padmavati for release without a single cut on Wednesday. The film has been given a December 1 release date by the authority for screening in Britain. While the film is unlikely to release in the country before it comes out in India, the all-clear certification will bolster the spirits of its makers who are battling controversies and protests at present.

The Sanjay Leela Bhansali spectacle has been deferred back home after massive protests from right wing groups who cited alleged “distortion of history” and the Rajput queen being shown in a poor light. Despite the makers refuting these claims, the film has been banned in two states with others demanding cuts in the film. The Central Board of Film Certification is yet to watch and certify the film, having returned the first application to the makers on the grounds of it being incomplete.

The BBFC, however, passed the film without any cut and gave it a 12 A rating. It said that the film had “moderate violence and injury detail”. In the summary of the film, it says, “Padmavati is a Hindi language epic drama in which a Sultan leads an invasion to capture a Rajput queen.”

Right wing organisations are protesting an alleged romantic relationship or a dream sequence between Padmavati (Deepika Padukone) and Alauddin Khilji ( Ranveer Singh ). The director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, has clarified there will be “no romantic scene or song or dream sequence between Rani Padmavati and Alauddin Khilji”. However, this failed to stop the protests. Even as Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat have banned the film, other BJP-ruled states have demanded that there should be no distortion of history in the film.

While there is a record of siege of Chittorgarh by Khilji, there is little historical evidence for Padmavati, who may have been created by the Sufi Muslim author of the poem, Malik Muhammad Jayasi.

When returning Padmavati application to producers, CBFC had said that the new application may have to wait for 68 days – a rule censor board had all along but was never implemented – before it was certified. A select group of journalists who watched the film have said the film doesn’t distort history in any way and celebrates Rajput pride.