MUMBAI: OMG 2, starring Akshay Kumar and Pankaj Tripathi, debuted in theaters in August, competing with Sunny Deol's Gadar 2, one of the year's biggest hits. Despite having an "A" rating, OMG 2 was able to draw a sizable crowd to theaters.
Director Amit Rai stated that the uncensored version of the movie would broadcast on OTT while the producers continued petitioning the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to change their certification to U/A. It appears that is not the case. In the latest interview, Rai once more criticized CBFC's "hypocrisy" as the film will begin to stream on Netflix on October 8.
As he talked about the movie's OTT release, the director told a well-known news site, “I don’t know what their (Netflix) apprehensions are. They don’t even know what discussions happened [with the CBFC] about the film.”
The film's creators thought it was intended for a teenage audience because it dealt with the topic of sex education. Everyone who saw the movie, according to Rai, thought it deserved a U/A certificate, but their pleas were remained unanswered.
He further added, “They (the streaming platform) will show the same version that the Censor Board passed. Ab ispe aur kya hi kar sakte hain? Saare desh ne chilla chilla ke bola par phir bhi Censor Board ko sunaayi nahin de raha, toh koi kuch nahin kar sakta (What more can one do about it? The whole country was asking for it but the Censor board wouldn’t listen, so no one can do anything).”
Amit Rai called out the "hypocrisy" and claimed that when he was seeing Gadar 2, which had a U/A certificate, a condom advertisement aired before the movie, while a shot of a condom advertisement was requested to be cut from his film.
He continued, “The shot of a condom ad on a truck was cut from our film, but when I watched Gadar 2 in theatre, which is a U/A certificate film, a condom ad in which Kartik Aaryan asks a girl about her preferred condom flavour played before the film started. That can be shown? It is pure hypocrisy.”
Rai continued by claiming that even Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani by Karan Johar also has, “so many kissing scenes” and questioned, “Was it okay for kids to watch that?”
According to the filmmaker, OMG 2's intended population previously couldn't see it in theaters, and now even adults won't be able to see the movie. He said, “Pehle target audience (teenagers) nahi dekh paaye humari film aur hum jo dikhana chahte the woh ab adults bhi nahi dekh payenge (Earlier, the target audience couldn’t watch our film and now, what we want to show, even the adults wouldn’t get to watch it).”
Akshay Kumar, who is also one of the film's producers, said on one of his theater visits when OMG 2 first opened in theaters, “Kamaal ki baat bataun, pehli adult film hai joh teenagers ke liye bani hai. Actually yeh sab school main dikhana chahiye (The funny thing is that this is the first adult film which is made for teenagers. This should be shown in schools).”
After the release of the movie, Amit Rai said that he had written numerous emails to the CBFC chairperson but had not received a response. OMG 2 received 27 cuts from the censor board. He mentioned, “I started telling them through the media that ‘Sir, I am folding my hands that you please make this UA because the intention was such that the families watch it. You have defeated its purpose.'”
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Credits – The Indian Express
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