13 April,2026 08:29 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Bhooth Bangla
Akshay Kumar's upcoming horror-comedy Bhooth Bangla, helmed by Priyadarshan, has cleared the censorship cut days ahead of its release. However, the film was cleared only after making some changes and cutting as much as 10 minutes from the film. The makers, after making the changes, reportedly received their certificate on April 2, after which they went back to the CBFC voluntarily to make additional cuts.
The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has granted the film a U/A 16+ certificate, indicating that children below the age of 16 will need parental guidance to watch it. Before giving the certificate, the CBFC's Examining Committee reportedly flagged several issues in the film and ordered changes to the same.
The CBFC objected on multiple fronts before clearing the film for release. According to a Bollywood Hungama report, the board flagged an obscene word used at 26 minutes and ordered it to be replaced. Similarly, another set of obscene words appearing around an hour into the film was also asked to be changed. Towards the end of the film, an obscene word in the subtitles was ordered to be removed entirely.
Beyond the objections over obscene words, the CBFC also raised an issue with a denigrating reference to women in the first half of the film. The makers were asked to replace the part with something more appropriate. Additionally, the CBFC directed the makers to add clear disclaimers for all religious and superstitious references made throughout the film.
After all these changes were made to the CBFC's satisfaction, the censor certificate was handed over to the makers on April 2, clearing the film ahead of its theatrical release on April 17, 2026.
Even after receiving the certificate, the makers reportedly returned to the CBFC with a fresh set of voluntary cuts a few days later. The CBFC accepted these additional changes on April 11. The makers reportedly trimmed 63 scenes from the film, with most cuts being small.
The biggest single cut accounted for 72 seconds, a full 1 minute and 12 seconds, which was a scene in the song O Sundari, which was deleted entirely. Another 27 seconds were also cut from the song O Re O Sawariya. The cuts in these two songs alone accounted for a significant portion of the total runtime decrease.
With all the cuts together, the runtime was brought down by 10 minutes and 5 seconds. The final revised runtime of Bhooth Bangla stands at 164.52 minutes, which is 2 hours, 44 minutes and 52 seconds.
