Kaala sent for certification; unlikely to be released on 27 April

Superstar Rajinikanth's Kaala (2018), which has been directed by Pa Ranjith, is back in the news. 

Sources in the film industry say that the film has been sent to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for certification at last. 

Earlier, reports began doing the rounds that Kaala had been censored by the CBFC and that it had been granted an U/A certificate. Reports on the Internet began claiming that the CBFC officials, who watched the film, suggested the removal of certain controversial scenes in the film before passing it with a U/A certificate. It was also reported that the filmmakers, who were dissatisfied with the rating given to the film, chose to have a verbal altercation with the CBFC officials and that they were looking at the possibility of sending the film to a revising committee.

However, sources close to the film unit have denied these reports. They say that the film has been sent for censoring and that work is on to get the CBFC certificate. Sources claim that the filmmakers had a tough time sending their film to the CBFC as normally any filmmaker, who is looking to get his film certified, needs to submit a No Objection Certificate issued by the Tamil Film Producers Council (TFPC). However, as the TFPC is on a strike, such a letter was not issued for Kaala. Sources suggest that the filmmakers had to approach the Film Chamber to get the No Objection letter instead and it is with this letter, that they have applied to the CBFC.

Even if Kaala is certified and even if the strike is withdrawn by the TFPC, there is very little chance that Kaala will be released on 27 April as announced by its producer Dhanush. This is because a number of films that were supposed to be released before Kaala are yet to hit the screens because of the ongoing strike in the Tamil film industry. Even if the strike is called off, these films that were slotted to be released before Kaala will queue up for release and Kaala will be able to hit the theatres only after them.