Dhadak 2 undergoes 16 cuts; caste slurs, ‘savarna’ mention removed

Dharma Productions’ Dhadak 2, a spiritual sequel to their 2018 film of the same name and a remake of Mari Selvaraj’s Pariyerum Perumal (2018), has been given a U/A 16+ certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification after about 16 cuts, with caste slurs being muted and mention of ‘Savarna’ being removed.

A U/A 16+ certification is the second highest maturity classification below A.

As per a report in The Hindu, here is a list of changes made to the film:

1. A Hindi dialogue which translates to “3,000 years of backlog will not be cleared in just 70 years”, changed to: “The backlog of age-old discrimination will not be cleared in just 70 years.”

2. A dialogue, “Nilesh ye kalam dekh rahe ho… Raaj kar rahe hain” (Nilesh, look at this pen… they’re ruling the world), which is a reference to Bahujan Samaj Party founder Kanshi Ram’s analogy referring to the upper caste as the nib of a pen, changed to: “Yeh chota sa dhakkan puri qalam ka thoda sa hissa hai aur baki ke hai hum phir bhi hamare sir per baithe hue hain, kyun?” (The cap of the pen is such a small part of it, yet it’s sitting on top of all of us. Why?)

3. Caste slurs like bhangi and chamar were muted and dubbed as junglee (wild).

4. One of the cuts says that the “Blue colour of the dog was removed”. The original film features a mystical sequence where a brutally killed dog’s blue-coloured spirit rescues the protagonist.

5. In another scene, sixteen seconds of a three minute scene featuring the “humiliation of Nilesh’s father” was cut. 

6.  “Dharam ka kaam hai” (this is religious work), changed to: “Punya ka kaam hai” (this is work towards a good deed).

7.  “Savarnon ke sadak … humein jala dete the” (The savarana’s streets … they would burn us alive), changed to: “Na sadke humari thi, na zameen hamari thi, na paani hamara tha, yaha tak ki zindagi bhi hamari nahi thi. Marne ki naubat aayi to sheher aa gaya (Neither were the streets ours, nor was the land, nor the water, nor even the life; I was on the verge of death, so I came to the city.)”

8. Violence against a woman replaced with black screen

9. A Tulsidas doha translated by author Ajai Kumar Chhawchharia to, “On the banks of a river in Chitrakoot, there is a crowd of saints and holy people. Tulsidas is rubbing sandalwood to make a paste, and Raghubir (Lord Ram) uses this paste to make the mark of the Tilak on their foreheads” was changed to: “Shoot arrows that may seem small but inflict great damage when they hit” (roughly translated).

10. A 20-second disclaimer at the start replaced by a longer, 51-second version, read aloud.

11. A swear word muted.

12. A shot of someone urinating on Nilesh (a Dalit character played by Siddhant Chaturvedi) censored.

13. A replacement involving Om Prakash Valmiki’s poem Thakur ka Kuan, which revolves around the upper caste’s control of resources (It is unclear if this poem was replaced, or if this poem replaced a different one)

Dhadak 2 is directed by Shazia Iqbal and stars Siddhant Chaturvedi and Triptii Dimri. The film was originally supposed to release in November 2024, but its release was later postponed to March, a date it also missed. In a rant on his Instagram stories about the condition of Bollywood, director Anurag Kashyap had mentioned Dhadak 2, mentioning that it has been stuck at the censors.