This is why Padmavati was not cleared by the CBFC

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmavati has been at the center of various controversies for the past few weeks. Though the film’s trailer was welcomed warmly by the audience, the director’s woes started soon after Rajput Karni Sena, along with various other political and religious organisations, started raising objections to the film’s content. They believed that history had been misrepresented and thus, the film should be banned.
After threats of disruption of peace in the country, the makers of Padmavati decided to postpone their release date from December 1. What also did not help their case was that the CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) did not certify the film at one go. It was said that the grounds for this action was that the makers left the application ‘incomplete’. While talking to Hindustan Times, CEO of the Censor Board, Anurag Srivastav, told exactly what the problem was, “The disclaimer had not been mentioned by the makers. We need an official thing from the makers about what your stand on this actually is. Is it based on fiction, or based on historical facts – you have to put it completely. By leaving that out, the document was (deemed) incomplete, because for examination purposes, we need to know what they (makers) are saying.”

Padmavati was submitted to the CBFC a few days prior to its release and not the stipulated 68 days that is mentioned in the rules. This rule has, apparently, existed for a long time but was not put into strict action as it was considered impractical. Anurag further said, “The rule has always been there. There has (of late) been a lot of clamour that films are not being released in time. But we just pointed out that we have this leeway of 68 days, because many times people come and say ‘I have to release my film tomorrow or day after’ when they have applied today! We have a huge number of applications, and there’s a huge backlog, especially in Mumbai. We have to then tell these makers that we cannot do it out of turn, because then, others will get affected.”