The new family comedy-drama Chef, one of the highest-profile films opening across India this weekend, has been tagged with a restrictive "U/A" rating (Parental Guidance for children below the age of 12 years) not because of any violent or sexual content, but because the censors object to the main character's smoking and his divorced status.

Chef's filmmakers reacted to news of the Central Board of Film Certification's (CBFC) rating decision on Wednesday, just in advance of the movie's release.

Director Raja Krishna Menon (Airlift) told an interviewer for the online news publication The Quint, "Apparently you can't have a hero separated from his wife and smoking in a 'U' film."

A source connected to the film added, “There was nothing in the film to justify a ‘UA’ rating rather than a ‘U’. But then the CBFC members apparently thought the hero who is divorced and who smokes, must be given a restricted viewing certification. Hence the ‘UA’.”