Ai la! Shah Rukh Khan’s son AbRam can’t watch Tom Cruise's The Mummy
The Central Board Of Film Certification has cleared the film on Saturday with no cuts. But with an ‘Adults Only’ certification
Little AbRam, who has been keenly awaiting the release of the new Tom Cruise film, The Mummy, won’t be able to watch the film.
The Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC) has cleared the film on Saturday with no cuts. But with an ‘Adults Only’ certification.
A big blow for Indian fans of Tom Cruise. No recent Cruise film has received an ‘Adults’ rating. Says a source from the CBFC, “We realise this is a film kids are waiting to see. We also realise Tom Cruise is a family star. Kids love him as much as grown-ups, and he tailors his films accordingly. Though The Mummy is a fantasy film with lots of hnEgyptian myths and legends, the content is violent. The choice was to either reduce the length of some of the action or to let the content remain and grant the film an ‘A’ certification. The producers went with the latter option.”
There is some amount of hypocrisy involved in censoring imported fantasy when laced with violence. In Baahubali 2, shots of severed heads were allowed and the film was passed with a ‘UA’. In The Mummy an ‘A’ certification was seen proper because of the aggressive nature of the action.
Apparently, the film’s producers Universal Pictures have decided to not contest the CBFC’s decision although the ‘A’ certification puts the film at a disadvantage vis-à-vis the other big Hollywood blockbuster releases of the season, Pirates Of The Caribbean and Wonder Woman both of which have been granted a ‘UA’ censor certification. “But Baywatch has got an ‘A’ and that too with cuts. So The Mummy is not on slippery ground,” adds the CBFC source.