The swords are now fully drawn on both sides of the battlements. CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani came out in defence of the board's decision to demand 89 cuts and a change to the title of Abhishek Chaubey's Udta Punjab. In an interview, Nihalani said "It has defamatory references to people in Ludhiana, Jalandhar and other cities in Punjab. It paints all Punjabis in bad light. Such a movie if released will bring bad name to the community that is present everywhere in the world."
Objecting to the team's decision to turn to the media, Nihalani said, "The movie was supposed to be cleared with an A grade and 89 cuts. We had communicated orally to the filmmakers who had agreed to come back with the cuts but they went to the media instead." He also stated that the cuts were approved in unanimous decision by the board members. Of the many scenes, two gain particular mention in the report. One scene reportedly has a mention of a dog named Jackie Chan. The board had requested the filmmakers to remove the 'Chan' and call the dog Jackie instead. Another member is reported as saying that a dialogue in the film 'Punjab di zameen banjar aur aulaad kanjar hai' was found objectionable by the board members.
The film's co-producer, Anurag Kashyap had taken to Twitter on Tuesday to make his stand against the CBFC demands. In one thinly veiled tweet, he compared the board with the dictatorship of North Korea.