Shonali Bose’s award winning film, Kalki Koechlin starrer ‘Margarita, with a Straw’ has been told by the Central Board of Film Certification to follow moral guidelines and make a lot of cuts.
Margarita, with a Staw is a story on Laila who has cerebral palsy. It is a slice of life film wherein Laila embarks on a journey to seek love and acceptance. After watching the film, the Examining Committee (EC) asked the makers to tone down a kissing scene between Kalki and Sayani Gupta, to which Shonali Bose says, “There is a 12-second long kiss between the two characters, but the CBFC had problems with it. They want me to reduce it to just a few seconds. I explained that as it is their first kiss, it can't be that brief.”
The members also asked her to edit out two scenes; one where Kalki shows the middle finger and another sequence which shows a male character removing her undergarments so that she can use the washroom and she then proceeds to urinate.
Shonali shares, “I told them this is reality, not titillation. My cousin sister suffers from cerebral palsy and when nobody else is around; her father has to take off her underwear so she can use the loo. She will pee her pants otherwise,”
She adds, “The film will go to the Revising Committee now. I hope better sense prevails as the EC, to my shock, told me they had moral guidelines to follow. I'm not going to settle for a single cut and will go to the Tribunal if required. It's a sensitive film and the CBFC should see it in the context it's made. Fortunately, my producers are backing me in this fight.”
