Censors pass Aruna Shields’s nude scene
The Central Board of Film Certification has passed a painting scene in 'Mr Singh Mrs Mehta' featuring the actress in the buff.
A painting scene showing actress Aruna Shields naked in a forthcoming film, Mr Singh Mrs Mehta, has surprisingly got the green signal from the censor board, an allegedly conservative body that usually asks film-makers to chop or tone down sexually laced scenes.
This development has prompted the cast to show eagerness to meet Sharmila Tagore, who chairs the Central Board for Film Certification, and thank her for the 'progressive' mind-set of the board.
“We all were worried how the censor board would react to the nude painting sequence,” said director Pravesh Bhardwaj.
“I had not shot any alternative version of the sequence and if the board had insisted that I chop certain parts of the sequence, the integrity of the film would have been compromised beyond repair."
“The censor board has for a long time been the whipping boy of the industry, blamed for sticking to archaic thinking and not being in touch with the changing mood of society," said actor Prashant Narayanan. "With Mr Singh Mrs Mehta the board is set to rewrite history.”
“It is not as if we submitted the film and the censor board just cleared it right away. The board saw the film twice, but they understood that the character of Neera Singh deciding to be a muse for a naked painting is the turning point for the character,” said Pravesh.
“For a girl who is so unsure and trapped in middle-class morality to reach a point where she not only poses naked in front of a man who is not her husband but also doesn’t care what the world will think when the painting becomes public is what captures her journey of self-discovery,” he said.