Bhojpuri Film On Babri Masjid Banned By The Censor Board

Bhojpuri superstar Khesari Lal Yadav probably didn’t know what he was getting into when he decided to do a film called Babari Masjid. A crude and kitschy take on the politics of  communalism in Ayodhya, the film has been unceremoniously banned by the Censor Board Of Film Certification (CBFC).

A  source from the censor board describes the film as “Grassroot politics at its most disruptive and disturbing.The film treats the communal divide as a platform for crude and loud Hindu-Muslim comments.It is likely to fuel communal tensions in not just UttarPradesh but across the country.”

The film has been denied a censor certificate…a first for a Bhojpurifilm.

Directed by a  certain Dev Pandey  the film’s trailer shows priests in saffron locking horns with their counterparts in  flowing beards  slamming each other with crude rhetorics. These rabble-rousing scenes are intercut with Bhojpuri superstar Khesari Lal Yadav wooing his co-star with risqué songs with chorus dancers gyrating suggestively.

Says a CBFC source, “This is the first time a Bhojpuri film has been banned.And it’s not because the content is crude. It’s because the crude content is applied to an issue as sensitive the Babri Masjid. We don’t only deny a certificate to the film we will also caution the  I & B ministry of the content to ensure the film doesn’t get a sympathetic viewing by so-called liberal elements.”