CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani has lashed out at the makers of the Hindi film Bank Chor. The CBFC chief found the film’s trailer extremely vulgar, and said that it was wrong on the part of the film’s makers to promote it as a ‘family entertainer’.
“If Bank Chor is so family-oriented why did we ask them to re-dub the title everywhere because it sounded like an abuse? In fact even now in all their radio, television and public events they continue to pronounce Bank Chor like a behen ki gaali (abusing sister),” he said.
The trailer, released last month, features lead actor Riteish Deshmukh as a bumbling thief. Vivek Oberoi plays a no-nonsense cop named Amjad Khan.
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Riteish had previously said that the film was made with the ‘family audiences’ in mind. “Throughout the making of the film, we kept family audiences in mind and we are so glad that the film has got a rating that will attract all kinds of people to the theaters! Ganpati Bappa Morya, let’s rock!” he said.
Nihalani, however, rues the fact that the film was allowed to release in the country. “The trailer of Bank Chor was so vulgar that we refused to certify it for six months. They finally went to the Revising Committee and got it passed. If you’ve made a naughty film why are you positioning it as a family film?”
Here’s the trailer:
Bank Chor released on June 16. The film has been panned by critics. Aditya Shrikrishna of the New India Express called it an ” excuse for a comedy film” while Anna MM Vetticad of Firstpost felt that the film is laden with “insidious messaging”. Arnab Bannerjee of Deccan Chronicle called the film “neither funny, not thrilling”.
The film also stars Rhea Chakraborty and is directed by Bumby of Luv Ka The End (2011) fame.