Ahmed Khan’s Welcome to the Jungle, the third film in the Welcome franchise, will hit screens on June 26. Ahead of that, the Central Board of Film Certification has certified the film for release, but only after 18 cuts and modifications were carried out. The list of changes for the Akshay Kumar-starrer included bikini scenes, a reference to Kashmir, hand gestures and more.
Welcome to the Jungle certified UA 16+
According to the CBFC, Welcome to the Jungle has been censored UA 16+ with a runtime of 164.50 minutes (2 hours 44 minutes). Summary to the film that was certified on June 20 reads: “In the madcap world of Welcome, where chaos is always just one bad idea away, comes its wildest chapter yet—Welcome to the Jungle. A billionaire, looking to fake losses, hatches a ridiculous plan—to make a film that’s guaranteed to fail. For the job, he assembles the most unreliable crew imaginable: a fading superstar, a clueless director duo.”
List of 18 cuts and modifications by the CBFC
The certificate, reported by Variety India, shows that 18 cuts, modifications and inclusions were made before Welcome to the Jungle was cleared for release. Some dialogues from the film were either deleted or modified.
The replaced dialogues include, “Kala paida hua hai…koayla hai (He was born dark like coal),” which was modified to, “Saadah paida hua…namoona hua hai (He was born a simpleton).” “Yaas karo kurbani muh me bhar lo paani (Remember the sacrifice and fill your mouth with water),” was changed to, “suno sunata hoon kahani, jo shaheed honey jaa raha tha, uske muh mien bharlo paan (Listen to my tale, paan in the mouth of those who were about to sacrifice themselves).” A dialogue which goes “Desh ki tatti (The country’s poop),” was also changed, as was ‘Ejjat le lo (Take away my dignity).”
“Na Diya” and “Panni of Kashmir” were deleted, as was the word ‘screwed’ from subtitles. ‘Azarudden’ was changed to ‘Allaudin’, ‘andha’ (blind) was replaced with ‘dheela’ (loose), ‘Gorkha Regiment’ was changed to “Tum army se ho? (Are you from the army?),” and ‘General’ was replaced with ‘officer’ or ‘sir’.
CBFC also deleted ‘sensual’ bikini visuals and body movements. It also categorised visuals featuring Disha and Jacqueline as ‘sensual’ while removing them; close-ups of women’s hips, hip movements in a song, and ‘vulgar’ hand gestures were replaced with a close-up of Vindu Dara Singh. The total deletions amounted to 10 seconds.
About Welcome to the Jungle
Welcome to the Jungle is directed by Ahmed Khan, written by Neeraj Vora, and produced by Firoz Nadiadwala, Rakesh Dang, and Vedant Vikaas Baali under Base Industries Group, Cape of Good Films and Seeta Films. The film stars an ensemble cast of Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Disha Patani, Jacqueline Fernandez, Raveena Tandon, Lara Dutta, Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade, Aftab Shivdasani, Jackie Shroff and Paresh Rawal.