National Award-winning filmmaker Suman Ghosh on Friday, 5 January said the censor board, in a letter, had sought the removal of the word "Gujarat" from his documentary on Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.
The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), however, had agreed to retain the other three words that its regional office had objected to in July last year, he added.
The four words CBFC Kolkata had objected to were - Cow, Hindu, Hindutva and Gujarat.
Earlier in the day, Ghosh had said that CBFC chairman Prasoon Joshi watched his hour-long documentary, "The Argumentative Indian", in Mumbai on Thursday and claimed that he had given a "verbal assurance" that it would be cleared "without any cuts".
However, subsequently, the filmmaker said:
I received a formal letter from the CBFC this evening. It said the three words - Cow, Hindu, Hindutva -- could be retained but ‘Gujarat’ needed to be removed.
The hour-long documentary had courted controversy in 2017 when the director refused to abide by CBFC Kolkata's diktat of beeping the four words.
Asked if he would follow the CBFC direction and remove the word "Gujarat", Ghosh said, "I am happy with Joshi's response but I need to think about it. I will formally respond to the CBFC tomorrow."
The film, shot in two parts in 2002 and 2017, has Sen talking about the social choice theory, development economics, philosophy and the rise of right-wing nationalism across the world, including in India.
Sources in CBFC Kolkata said the issue was being handled by the chairman and that the regional office had no say in it.
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