I have no regrets: Pahlaj Nihalani on his controversial stint as CBFC chief

The government replaced Pahlaj Nihalani with songwriter-poet Prasoon Joshi as the censor board chief on Friday. Joshi was appointed with immediate effect for a period of three years or until further orders, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry said in a release.

Reacting to the news, former CBFC chief Nihalani said he had been preparing for the exit for months.

“Actually, from the time I came in, there have been elements working against me, some of them from within the CBFC. These elements — I am not going to name them on-record — are currently celebrating premature Diwali,” told Quint.

Recently, Nihalani was in news related to the multiple cuts in Madhur Bhandarkar’s Indu Sarkar and refusal to certify Lipstick Under My Burqa.

Another controversy erupted when the CBFC objected to the word “intercourse” in the Shah Rukh Khan film When Harry Met Sejal. Besides, the decision to beep words like “cow” and “Hindu India” in a documentary on Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen also attracted criticism.

But Nihalani has no regrets. The report quotes him as saying, “None at all. Believe me, I was brought in as the CBFC chairperson all a sudden. I happily took up the job that the government thought me fit …read more