There has been buzz that Rajkumar Hirani’s biopic Sanju is an attempt to whitewash the conflicted, controversial and complicated Sanjay Dutt’s life. The director has rubbished the allegations of Sanju being a propaganda film, adding, “There is no reason for me to make a film to clear his image. I am not an out of work director to make a movie to whitewash his image. My greed as a filmmaker is a great story.”

Apparently, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has taken a similar benign view towards the film. The board, which had screened the film last week, has apparently not taken any umbrage to the fact that Sanjay Dutt comes across as a victim of circumstances rather than a villain. Inside sources have claimed that there was zero objection to Dutt’s positive portrayal in the film. One member even maintained that they were not assigned to judge a film’s morality but to evaluate the film in its entirety. They apparently found nothing offensive but for a few brief shots and dialogues.

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Similarly, the board had no issue with the mention of the number of Dutt’s girlfriends. In fact, the references to Dutt’s “308 girlfriends… not counting the prostitutes,” actually left some of them laughing out loud. This benevolent attitude is in stark contrast to the reactions that had followed the trailer release of the film.

At that time, certain members of the CBFC were said to have found the scenes where Ranbir discusses drugs, alcohol and how many women he has slept with, offensive. Besides finding the sequence of the overflowing excreta visually repugnant, one sequence was deemed to be disrespectful to the mangalsutra.

What’s more, the tone of the trailer which suggested Sanjay was innocent, was seen to be against the court’s verdict and was expected to cause moral and legal outrage. Thankfully, all is well!