Bollywood films on controversial subjects and with scenes that fall afoul of India's Central Board of Film Certification are nothing new. Most recently, Pankaj Kapoor's "Mausam" earned the wrath of the Indian Air Force (IAF), who demanded the deletion and re-working of certain scenes.
We present, from the recent past, a list of similarly controversial Bollywood films.
"Mausam" (2011): Pankaj Kapoor's debut film ran into hot water when the IAF demanded that he replace a scene showing the emergency landing of an aircraft with that of a normal landing. The contention is that the former may convey the wrong messages about the IAF's flight safety measures.
"Aarakshan" (2011): Prakash Jha's film on the already-controversial question of reservations in India was bound to run into trouble. Predictably, the film was banned in various parts of India and political parties objected against the tone of dialogue with reference to the Dalit community. The film was only released after Jha made the necessary changes.
"It's A Man's World" (2010): This film could lay claim to being the first to talk about the plight of male sex workers. Unfortunately, the film, which cast a number of debutants, released without too much publicity and died a natural death.
"Love Sex aur Dhokha" (2010): The title itself provoked controversy! The film, which dealt with the infamous MMS scandal of 2004 at the Delhi Public School, was specially targeted for a seven-minute long, bare-back, love-making scene. Under protests, director Dibakar Banerjee cut the section short and blurred much of it.
"Sins" (2005): Directed by Vinod Pande, "Sins" is about a Catholic priest, played by Shiney Ahuja (who, incidentally, was convicted, in 2009 of raping his maid), who found himself romantically involved with Seema Rehmani, a young woman. Christians protested the negative portrayal of Catholicism, blasphemy and indecency. The movie was certified "A", as it had several explicit scenes and dealt with content of an adult nature.
"Black Friday" (2004): Based on S. Hussain Zaidi's book "Black Friday - The True Story of the Bombay Bomb Blasts", the film was directed by Anurag Kashyap and created controversy in Britain. However, the film was well-received overseas and won the Grand Jury Prize at the International Film Festival of Los Angeles.
"Khwahish" (2003): Famous for featuring as many as 17 kissing scenes between lead actors Himanshu Malik and Mallika Sherawat, this Govind Menon-directed film ran into quite a few difficulties due to the generally explicit nature of its content.
"Ek Chhotisi Love Story" (2002): Shashilal K Nair's film about a teenager and his predilection for sex had more than its fair share of controversies. Most famously, perhaps, the film featured explicit sexual activity and even saw lead actress Manisha Koirala file a case to stay its release, alleging that she found certain scenes obscene.
