Prasoon Joshi fails to attend office on first day, Pahlaj Nihalani steps in to help ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’

Last Friday, renowned lyricist and ad-man Prasoon Joshi took over the chair of CBFC chief from the controversial head Pahlaj Nihalani. Yesterday i.e. August 15, was Joshi’s first day at office. However, Joshi, who was not at the best of his health, couldn’t turn up. As a result, Nihalani had to step in to help deliver the pending certificates.

“On Friday before Pahlaj Nihalani left his office he had certified many films including Ashwini Iyer Tiwari’s ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’ and the Sidharth Malhotra-Jacqueline Fernandez thriller ‘A Gentleman’ scheduled to be released on the two Fridays to come one after the other. These producers were to collect their censor certificates on Monday as per the rules. When Prasoon Joshi didn’t turn up at the CBFC office on Monday, all hell broke loose since there was no chairperson to organise the smooth delivery of the certificates,’ a source told Subhash K Jha. (Also Read: Pahlaj Nihalani: I can understand Anurag Kashyap feeling happy about my departure)

Following this, the producers of ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’ got in touch with Nihalani. The former chairperson had no option but to intervene.

“The list of films to be cleared for August 18 and August 25 was endless. Never before had we at the CBFC been given so many films to view all at once. In fact, Ashwini Iyer Tiwari’s ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’ came to us on Thursday and we viewed the film and provided an all-clear U certificate to the film on Friday.

“This is a film co-produced by Renu Chopra, the wife of the late filmmaker Ravi Chopra. It is her first attempt at turning an independent producer. I didn’t want her film to suffer any delay,” said Nihalani, to Jha.

Ranjini Maitra

Journalist. Writer. Reader. Enthu cutlet. Mood-swing machine. Day dreamer. Sandwiched between ‘live life fully’ and ‘lose some weight’. Mantra of life: Love and love more.