Director Sanal Kumar Sasidharan is happy that his controversial Malayalam film S Durga has been passed by the CBFC revising committee. He is looking for a pan-India release in March or April.
"Happy to share this. Revising Committee of CBFC has cleared the censor certificate for S Durga. Hope that the film will be released in India soon," Sanal tweeted on Wednesday along with the film's poster that reads "S Coming, S Durga".
S Durga was dropped from a jury-suggested shortlist of the Indian Panorama section of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) along with another film, Ravi Jadhav's Nude, triggering controversy last year.
The director got caught in a long-drawn battle with the IFFI organisers to screen his movie, and even moved the Kerala high court in November.
"They (CBFC) wanted to re-examine my film. I was told that there was manipulation in the title of the film. I went to the court. The court asked CBFC to clear the film if I was ready to release the film as S Durga instead of Sexy Durga," Sanal told IANS, a news agency.
"I was okay with S Durga as earlier, when I had applied to censor board, I was told to change the name. I had agreed to it. Now, after re-examination, they have found nothing objectionable. They cleared the film without any fresh cuts. It has received a U/A certificate. The producer (Shaji Mathew) needs to file an affidavit saying that he will only screen the film as S Durga and only S Durga would be used in the promotion or poster of the film," he added.
Internationally, the film is titled Sexy Durga.
"International rights have been already sold. It's in India, that I can't use the name as the censor board has a problem with it. But there is nothing against Goddess Durga. I am tired of repeating this 100 times. It is about the society. People need to watch the film and then only they will understand and can form an opinion," said the director.
He is planning to release the film across the country soon.
"We are trying to release it pan-India. Discussions are going on. Hopefully, by end of March or beginning of April it will release. There are already subtitles. The film is not really dialogue oriented. So, even if it is not dubbed, people will understand it," he said.