Bollywood’s hopes that in the new Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chief Prasoon Joshi it had found a kindred soul, have come crashing down. Sanjay Dutt’s return film Bhoomi, whose preview by the CBFC was being looked at as a case study by the industry, has not been spared the censors’ scissors. It got a U/A certificate but only after 13 cuts that left the filmmakers shocked.

Sources say the most damaging cut of all was the rape scene in this father-daughter emotional drama. While Omung Kumar has not been saying that it was the rape of his daughter (Aditi Rao Hydari) that sends the father (Sanjay Dutt) on a bloodlust for revenge, it was generally known that rape was the reason. Now with the CBFC ordering this scene cut, the news is out.

T-Series and Omung are unhappy. They believe that a covert rape sequence was allowed in Boney Kapoor’s film Mom featuring wife Sridevi in a comeback, but was axed in Bhoomi.  Further cuts include the scene where a minor joins his elder brother in the rape, the bad words used by Bhoomi baddie Sharad Kelkar, and other provocative dialogue and gruesome action.

There is one more cut that has left the Bhoomi filmmakers wondering whether the change in the CBFC since Prasoon Joshi replaced the cussed Pahlaj Nihalani is that it has gone from bad to worse. This scene had Sanjay Dutt’s character chopping off the genitals of one of the villains. The CBFC has not let it pass. Sources say that a similar scene was allowed in Mom again.

Now whispers are doing the rounds of Bollywood and the producers’ lobby about whether the “radical changes” expected in the CBFC’s film reviewing process with Prasoon Joshi at the helm are going to benefit the industry or not. Bhoomi will release on September 22.