In September, mid-day reported that the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) had held up the certification of Mamta Child Factory since its June submission (Pregnant pause on film’s future, Sep 18). Over a month on, the dispute has escalated. The CBFC issued a show-cause notice, dated October 14, to director Mohsin Khan, questioning the film’s originality. The notice states that Mamta Child Factory is a dubbed version and hence, cannot be certified as an “original” work.
Speaking to mid-day, an infuriated Khan says that he had directed two movies with the same script and cast — a Marathi version, titled Delivery Boy (2024), and a Hindi offering, titled Mamta Child Factory. The Marathi film was cleared by the CBFC in January 2024 and released in February 2024.
However, the experience was entirely different with the Hindi offering. “After watching it, they discussed among themselves for barely five minutes, and told me, ‘We can’t give a certificate because this film highlights surrogacy in a commercial way’.” That was baffling to the director, considering several movies — including Mimi (2021) — on the subject have made it to the screen.
Following this, in early September, Khan approached senior CBFC officials, including Rajendra Singh. He highlighted that the Board’s approval of Delivery Boy, followed by the hold-up of Mamta Child Factory’s certification showed “internal inconsistency.” “I was then told to apply for a dubbed version. But this isn’t dubbed! I’ve shot the film in Hindi from scratch.”
After weeks of silence, Khan received the CBFC notice, which cited that “the director himself had said this is a dubbed film.” Seeing red at the claim, he says, “That’s false! They’ve written that to avoid giving a real reason. If they had officially rejected it over surrogacy, I would’ve gone to court. So, they took the easy route, called it a dub and shut the file.” mid-day contacted CBFC chief Prasoon Joshi, and Singh, who didn’t respond till press time.