Even as Shah Rukh Khan's Raees is gearing up to hit theatres on Wednesday, January 25, the Censor Board has asked for disclaimers for some of the scenes in the film, instead of chopping them off.
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For quite some time now, speculations had been doing the rounds that Raees is based on real-life Gujarati bootlegger-turned-politician Abdul Lateef. Putting all the speculations to rest, a DNA report said that the board had asked the makers to add opening-credits disclaimer stating, "This film is a work of fiction. It does not disparage any person dead or alive."
The board also raised their issue with scenes of liquor manufacture and consumption, since SRK plays a bootlegger. Another disclaimer has now been added stating, "The film does not in any way endorse its protagonist's professional allegiance to alcohol."
Also, the film has a scene of a child facing corporal punishment and the board felt it may cause problems. The Censor Board members had a serious discussion with the Raees producers over the scene and came up with a decision to add a disclaimer stating that the film and its makers do not support corporal punishment.
The decision was taken after a recent incident in Mumbai when pictures of a seven-year-old school girl with a bald patch on her head made headlines and invited massive debate on corporal punishment in Indian schools. The girl was reportedly punished at school and her hair mercilessly pulled resulting in the bald patch on her head.
"There were two options. Either that sequence had to be removed or we had to find a way of justifying its presence. The Censors were sensible enough to see that the sequence of corporal punishment was crucial to the plot, so they found a way out. They asked producer Ritesh Sidhwani to add a disclaimer stating that film and its makers do not support corporal punishment," a source told the daily.
