MUMBAI: For the first time, a film‘s title had to be changed because the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFS) had some reservations.
Though it released on 9 March, the makers of the Bengali film Macho Mustafa had to go through prodding times at the hands of the CBFS. The reason: the censoring authority didn‘t like the original title Macho Mastana.
“As the Censor Board expressed reservations about the title, we sought feedback from community leaders and accordingly the name was changed less than a month before the film‘s release,” director Reshmi Mitra has reportedly said.
“We were told that the term ‘Macho‘ cannot be prefixed to God (Allah) and this may hurt religious sentiments,” she explained.
The budget for the film, of which Rs 70 million had already been spent, went up by at least Rs 3 million more on account of frame-by-frame correction in the computer generated imagery (CGI), which was essential.
The budget has further swelled because the correction of shots were done at a Chennai studio, Mitra said. The film‘s old name and logos were displayed in some shots, which had to be changed and the whole title track, with the emblazoned old name, had to be re-recorded after building a new set, she pointed out.
However, things would be better if they were made aware of the title‘s sensitivity beforehand as posters, publicity materials and hundreds of audio CDs bearing the old name had already been printed, she observed.
