Akshay
Kumar's upcoming horror-comedy Bhooth Bangla, directed by Priyadarshan, has cleared censorship but not without a few hurdles along the way. The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) granted the film a U/A 16+ certificate, which means children below 16 years of age will need parental guidance to watch it. However, before handing over the certificate, the CBFC's Examining Committee reportedly flagged several issues in the film and ordered a specific set of changes. The makers complied, received their certificate on April 2, and later went back to the CBFC voluntarily to make additional cuts, trimming the film's runtime by over 10 minutes in total.
Bhooth Bangla: Full List Of Changes Ordered By CBFC
The CBFC raised objections on multiple fronts before clearing the film for release. According to Bollywood Hungama, the board flagged an obscene word used around the 26-minute mark and ordered it to be replaced. Another set of obscene words appearing roughly an hour into the film was also identified and asked to be changed. Towards the end of the film, an obscene word appearing in the subtitles was ordered to be removed entirely.Beyond the language-related objections, the CBFC also took issue with a denigrating reference to women that appeared in the first half of the film. The makers were asked to replace this with something more appropriate. Additionally, the board directed the makers to add clear disclaimers for all religious and superstitious references made throughout the film.
Once all these changes were made to the CBFC's satisfaction, the censor certificate was officially handed over to the makers on April 2, clearing the film for its theatrical release.
Bhooth Bangla Final Runtime And Certification
After receiving the certificate, the makers returned to the CBFC a few days later with a fresh set of voluntary cuts. The CBFC accepted these additional cuts on April 11. In total, the makers trimmed 63 scenes from the film, with most cuts being small.The biggest single cut was of 72 seconds, a full 1 minute and 12 seconds, from a scene in the song O Sundari, which was deleted entirely. Another 27 seconds were also removed from the song O Re O Sawariya. These two songs alone accounted for a significant portion of the total runtime reduction.All the cuts together brought the runtime down by 10 minutes and 5 seconds. The final revised runtime of Bhooth Bangla now stands at 164.52 minutes, that is 2 hours, 44 minutes and 52 seconds. The film is set to release in theatres on April 17, 2026.
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