Integrity of India’s borders non-negotiable: CBFC chief on Kashmir references in Mission: ‘Impossible- Fallout’

MUMBAI, July 31:
Censor board chief Prasoon Joshi has said “Kashmir” references from Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” were asked to be “rectified or removed” as the integrity of India’s borders is “non-negotiable”.
According to him, the map shown in the film “misrepresents the boundaries of Jammu and Kashmir”.
“The CBFC has advised the applicant of the film ‘Mission: Impossible 6’ that the map shown in the film misrepresents the boundaries of Jammu and Kashmir and should be either rectified or removed. They had also referred to Kashmir as ‘India-controlled Kashmir’ which we have asked them to correct as the ‘Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir’.
“Integrity of our country’s borders are non-negotiable and cannot be compromised on for the sake of entertainment,” Joshi said last night.
The Christopher McQuarrie-directed movie released in India on July 27 and had four cuts/modifications made by the CBFC.
The board had asked the makers to cut the title before the climax that identified the place “India-controlled Kashmir” and a map of the Indian subcontinent was also removed.
The makers were also asked to add a disclaimer of fiction that “the film neither intends to hurt the feelings/sentiments nor means to defame persons of any region, community, nationality, religion or organisation”.
The mentions of the Nubra Valley and the Siachen glacier in Ladakh by Rebecca Fergusson’s Ilsa Faust, however, have not been deleted.
In an interview with PTI in Paris, director Christopher McQuarrie had said he was keen to set the climax of the film in Kashmir and they wanted to shoot the film in India but eventually settled for New Zealand.
“I had wanted to shoot in India. I went and scouted there extensively… It was a pretty crazy sequence. So while we were shooting in New Zealand, we still had this (feel)… We liked the flavour of India, so (somehow) we managed to put it in (the film),” McQuarrie had said.
“Mission: Impossible Fallout” has minted Rs 56.1 crore in India, making it the biggest opening day and opening weekend for a Cruise film in the country. (PTI)