Several Bollywood filmmakers who suffered endless nights of anguish at home and hours of grief in the edit rooms of studios, are not going to get sweet revenge on Pahlaj Nihalani. The former Central Board of Film Certification chief, who was notoriously hidebound and tunnel visioned in his censorship of Bollywood films during his 31-month stint and earned the nickname ‘Scissorhands’, will soon be approaching the CBFC himself with an erotic thriller titled Julie 2.

Nihalani was reportedly sacked after the I&B Ministry got tired of Bollywood’s endless complaints against the Censor chief who came down heavily on what he termed as “bold” films. Soon after, Nihalani turned distributor for the October release erotic thriller. He appeared for the trailer launch of Julie 2. This was his first public appearance after unceremoniously being replaced by Prasoon Joshi as CBFC chairperson and Nihalani was bombarded by questions from an aggressive media about the wisdom in having accepted distribution of Julie 2 given his outlook of films from this genre.

Now as the film gets ready for its release and Bollywood waits in breathless anticipation to see how it fares at the CBFC, Nihalani coolly expressed confidence that Julie 2 won’t suffer a single cut because it has no objectionable content, no obscenity, no vulgarity, no double meaning or cuss words. He is expecting an ‘A’ certificate and does not want a ‘U/A’ because Julie 2 is a complete adult, family film! This has reportedly mystified Bollywood filmmakers. If the film has none of the above, and as Nihalani says it’s an adult, family film, why should he settle for an ‘A’ certificate beforehand? “I know the rules, I won’t create controversy,” he reportedly said.

The focus for Julie 2 shifts from Nihalani to Prasoon Joshi, now. Will he follow the CBFC guidelines and not come up with distressing ad hoc rules of his own, as his predecessor was accused of doing? Will he, as Nihalani has been saying, pass Julie 2 without a single cut? Or will he prove to the fraternity that revenge is indeed a dish best served cold? The film releases on October 6.