Raja Krishna Menon, the director of Saif Ali Khan’s upcoming film Chef, said that the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) gives U/A certificates to films if there’s any smoking or drinking on screen. Speaking to Hindustan Times, the filmmaker said:
“They (CBFC members) felt the subject wasn’t one that could be digested by kids below 12 unsupervised and apparently smoking or drinking if shown in a film automatically means it can’t qualify for a U.”
While he isn’t happy about this, he said he wouldn’t challenge the CBFC since it doesn’t affect their exhibition strategy. He’s also not ready to comment if Prasoon Joshi taking over as CBFC chief is a good idea or not.
“We’d have to wait for something that is more on the edge to see if they are looking at films differently,” he tells HT.
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Directed by Raja Krishna Menon, the film stars Saif Ali Khan, Padmapriya Janakiraman, Dhanish Karthik, Shyan Munshi, Chandan Roy Sanyal, and Canadian-Indian comedian Russell Peters. It is produced by Bhushan Kumar, Vikram Malhotra and Bandra West Pictures.
It is based on a Hollywood film of the same name starring Jon Favreau, Sofía Vergara, John Leguizamo, Scarlett Johansson, Oliver Platt, Bobby Cannavale, Dustin Hoffman, and Robert Downey Jr.
The original film was about a professional chef who, after a public altercation with a food critic, quits his job at a popular Los Angeles restaurant and returns to his hometown of Miami to fix up a food truck. It also focused on the father-son relationship blossoming through the food journey they embark on.