‘A Nice Indian Boy’ | What’s in a name? Ask the censor board

A small portion ago A Nice Indian Boy, a romanticist drama directed by Roshan Sethi, connected love, individuality and taste belonging, turned into a censorship conflict implicit a azygous connection successful its title: Indian. Sethi is the latest casualty of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC’s) scrutiny of movie titles — referencing country, religion, caste oregon queer themes. His movie softly released successful India connected October 17 as A Nice Boy, stripping it of its precise identity.

Moviegoers were unaware of its quiescent erasure. “At the extremity of the day, you archer yourself — astatine least, it’s releasing successful theatres,” says Avinaash Jumani, CEO, PictureWorks, the film’s India distributor. The movie stayed successful theatres for lone a week and cinephiles apt missed it.

The rubric is the archetypal happening written connected a script, indicating what the communicative stands for. A rubric alteration indicates the temper of the existent infinitesimal successful a nation. When The Hindu reached retired to CBFC members, they declined to talk connected record. One root adjacent to the committee said, rubric changes “depend connected the committee [examining oregon revising] viewing the film. If the film’s contented [title oregon taxable matter] is against the mandate acceptable by the board, they are astatine liberty to suggest changes.”

Made successful India

The makers of A Nice Indian Boy were hoping for a seamless certification process erstwhile they submitted their movie to the CBFC. After all, what could spell incorrect with a DDLJ-esque movie astir a young antheral introducing his person to his accepted parents — a acquainted romcom trope. But determination was a crippled twist: the mates successful question is gay.

It didn’t substance that the movie earned a uncommon 95% standing connected the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Amid a fewer regular cuts, the CBFC had 1 non-negotiable ask. “They said: driblet the connection ‘Indian’ if you privation your movie certified for a theatrical release,” says Jumani, who had to personally sojourn the CBFC bureau for a gathering to plead his case, but successful vain. Their large reservation: however tin a “nice Indian boy” beryllium gay?

The removal of ‘Indian’ from the rubric adjacent kept multiplex audiences, seeking romcoms astir the Indian diaspora, astatine bay. With the beingness of Karan Soni, Deadpool’s cult-favourite cab driver, and Indian-American comedian Zarna Garg, who recovered planetary fame with her crisp commentary connected migrant life, determination was each crushed to draw desi audiences.

One excessively many

This isn’t an isolated incident. Over the years, Indian movie titles person been hacked and pruned, astir famously Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmavati becoming Padmaavat (2018), Malayalam film Oru Bharatha Sarkar Ulpannam (that translates to ‘A authorities of India Production’) getting retitled as Oru Sarkar Ulpannam (2024), and Janaki v/s State of Kerala releasing as Janaki V v/s State of Kerala (2025), when the CBFC objected to the usage of a Hindu deity’s sanction successful the movie title.

It is astir telling that titles with ‘India’ oregon ‘Indian’ are the astir scrutinised. Producer and spouse astatine Ellipsis Entertainment, Tanuj Garg recalls his ordeal with Emraan Hashmi starrer Cheat India (2019), which got cleared for merchandise lone aft being renamed Why Cheat India. “The CBFC withheld certification, citing the connection ‘cheat’ could beryllium perceived arsenic normalising malpractice successful India. It felt much similar an lawsuit of motivation policing than certification,” says Garg, adding, “It besides diluted the irony of the archetypal rubric — a societal commentary connected corruption successful the acquisition system.”

A queer drama

For queer drama Aligarh’s writer and exertion Apurva M. Asrani, the contention astir titles is familiar. He recalls however the politician of Aligarh insisted connected dropping the title, stating however associating the city’s sanction with a cheery protagonist could amusement it successful atrocious light. “The aforesaid ideology drives A Nice Indian Boy — ‘gay’ and ‘Indian’ cannot coexist,” says Asrani. When the trailer was being cleared for television, they were told to mute ‘gay’ and ‘homosexual’ due to the fact that ‘children would beryllium watching’. For Asrani, the contented is much taste than bureaucratic. Even today, helium says, we usage “gay” arsenic a slur. “If the word itself weren’t stigmatised, I uncertainty anyone would entity to it successful titles.”

The censorship absurdity is captured successful Varun Grover’s short, Kiss (on Mubi), about a censor committee demanding the shortening of a kissing country betwixt 2 men. It feels little similar satire and much similar a documentary successful motion, underlining however idiosyncratic prejudices stifle storytelling.

Jhumani admits that the erasure inactive unsettles. “While A Nice Indian Boy can beryllium recovered connected Rotten Tomatoes oregon iMDb, its Indian-release title A Nice Boy, does not person a abstracted listing connected these websites. This region-specific tampering fractures the film’s wide identity.” His reflection resonates adjacent much erstwhile placed alongside Rohan Kanawade’s queer drama Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears), a Marathi-language Sundance victor that enjoyed a limited, but favourable tally successful September. What’s striking, however, is however the movie continues to prolong its momentum done a parallel exemplary of distribution: “request a amusement successful your city”, wherever audiences tin petition a section screening by filling retired a signifier connected Kanawade’s Instagram. Could this beryllium a mode for indie queer films to survive?

The different casualties

The Punjabi film Panjab ’95 still remains locked successful a censorship conflict since manager Honey Trehan archetypal submitted the movie successful 2022. Trehan remembers the ordeal each excessively well. “The archetypal rubric was Ghalughara, which means ‘massacre’. This got rejected astatine its onset. I had to past taxable 3 much titles. After yet settling on Panjab ’95, strangely enough, they got acold feet,” helium says. The committee past suggested renaming it Satluj, aft a river. But helium persisted, recalling however the CBFC asked him to marque 127 cuts.

“What the movie should beryllium called is solely the director’s prerogative — it is tied to the story. But erstwhile CBFC begins to propulsion a majoritarian agenda, it is alarming,” Trehan asserts, portion pointing to the deafening soundlessness surrounding Dibakar Banerjee’s dystopian drama Tees, primitively titled Freedom, which has been indefinitely shelved by Netflix.

Even producers, often perceived arsenic pragmatic mediators, are noticing a trend. “When titles are forcibly changed by those who bash not recognize the originative intent down it, it could make a disconnect with the audience,” says shaper and distributor Girish Johar. Commenting on A Nice Indian Boy, helium says, “The censor committee intelligibly did not privation Indianness to beryllium associated with queerness.”

Devil successful the detail

Data from CBFC Watch (cbfc.watch), a database of censorship accusation for astir 18,000 films released betwixt 2017 and 2025, created by developers Aman Bhargava and Vivek Matthew, reveals the board’s pattern: of each the films successful their database, astir 65 cases impact substantive modifications to the contented of the title. The interpretations look highly contextual, Bhargava says, observing that “there’s nary azygous regularisation applied uniformly crossed cases, which makes patterns hard to predict”.

The task compiles accusation from the E Cinepramaan portal, CBFC’s authoritative online certification system, which has published chopped lists since 2017 for nationalist access. However, a fewer months ago, the committee softly made automated information postulation from the portal intolerable — a determination that Bhargava says has made monitoring censorship trends acold much difficult. The cuts are inactive disposable but lone if you scan the censor certificate shown earlier a movie successful theatres oregon if displayed connected a announcement board. But from the data, helium does spot modifications to definite words utilized successful perchance antagonistic contexts.

This unpredictability of the board’s last result is besides forcing filmmakers to workout pre-emptive self-censorship. “Some titles could conscionable trigger the CBFC, and filmmakers take to debar it from the precise commencement — and taxable a rubric that volition beryllium slightest touched by censors’ scissors,” Johar says.

Self-censoring: comply than contest

The discomfort with definite words is not new. In 2017, Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s Malayalam indie fearfulness film Sexy Durga was cleared lone aft being retitled S Durga. Former CBFC chairperson Pahlaj Nihalani defends specified decisions, saying, “If the provocative quality of a rubric could incite struggle oregon wounded sentiment, the onus is connected the committee to alteration it.”

Earlier, the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) heard appeals against decisions of the CBFC, which famously allowed 2016 feminist drama Lipstick Under My Burkha to beryllium released with minimal cuts. However, the tribunal was aboriginal dissolved. Nihalani, referring to the removal of this furniture of accountability, says, “Today, filmmakers indispensable spell to the High Court straight — an costly and time-consuming affair. It is amended to comply than contest.”

The writer is simply a Mumbai-based freelance journalist.