Early last year, after the Examining Committee had failed to arrive at a consensus on the certification of his cop-drama, Jai Gangaajal, featuring Priyanka Chopra, Prakash Jha had approached the Revising Committee which had offered him a ‘U/A’ certificate with 11 cuts, which included editing out cuss words like ‘saala’ and ‘ghanta’ which the filmmaker argued were a part of everyday conversations in the hinterlands. He refused to comply with the diktats and appealed to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) that passed the film with a U/A certificate and no cuts. The National Award-winner’s battle with the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC) continues.

In January 2017, Jha’s new production, Lipstick Under My Burkha, directed by Alankrita Shrivastava, was screened for the Censor Board’s Examining Committee and Jha was informed that the film cannot be certified. The reasons stated in a letter read: “The story is lady oriented, their fantasy above life. There are contanious sexual scenes, abusive words, audio pornography and a bit sensitive touch about one particular section of society, hence film refused under guidelines 1(a), 2(vii), 2(ix), 2(x), 2(xi), 2(xii) and 3(i).”