The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has granted clearance to Dhadak 2—a remake of the acclaimed 2018 Tamil anti-caste film Pariyerum Perumal—after enforcing sixteen significant modifications. The film, starring Triptii Dimri and Siddhant Chaturvedi, had its release delayed multiple times, first from November 2024 and later from March 2025, due to certification hurdles.
Compared to the original Tamil film, which underwent only four cuts, Dhadak 2 faced a more stringent review, particularly around depictions of caste-based discrimination—including slurs, symbolic analogies, and visual metaphors.
Major Modifications and Cuts:
- A potent dialogue referencing India’s historical caste backlog—“3,000 years of backlog will not be cleared in just 70 years”—was toned down to a more general line: “The backlog of age-old discrimination will not be cleared in just 70 years.”
- A line loosely inspired by Bahujan leader Kanshi Ram’s pen analogy was reworded. The original, “Nilesh ye kalam dekh rahe ho…., Raaj kar rahe hain” (“You see this pen… [they] are ruling”) was replaced with a subtler version:
“Yeh chota sa dhakkan puri qalam ka thoda sa hissa hai aur baki ke hai hum phir bhi hamare sir per baithe hua hai kyu.”
(“This small lid is a small part of the pen, yet it sits on our heads. Why?”) - Caste-based slurs like “chamar” and “bhangi” were either muted or replaced with less charged terms such as “junglee.”
- A five-second shot showing someone urinating on the protagonist Nilesh was completely removed.
- A surreal scene where a blue-coloured dog spirit appears was also censored—the CBFC noted the “blue colour of the dog was removed”.
- A particularly intense 16-second portion of a scene showing the humiliation of Nilesh’s father was excised from the film.
- The phrase “Dharam ka kaam hai” (“This is religious work”) was revised to “Punya ka kaam hai” (“This is [work toward] a good deed”).
- A reference to the poem “Thakur ka Kuan” by Om Prakash Valmiki—a powerful commentary on caste-based denial of access to water—was altered or replaced, though the CBFC’s record is unclear on the specifics.
- Another striking dialogue, originally “Savarnon ke sadak … humein jala dete the” (“The savarnas’ streets … they would burn us alive”), was revised to a more expansive but less incendiary line:
“Na sadke hamari thin, na zameen hamari thin, na paani hamara tha. Yaha tak ki zindagi bhi hamari nahi thi. Marne ki naubat aayi to shaher aagaya.”
(“Neither were the streets ours, nor the land, nor the water, nor even life itself. When I reached the brink of death, I came to the city.”)
Film Rating and Reception
The film has been rated U/A 16+, the second-highest maturity classification after ‘A’. The CBFC’s extensive intervention, particularly on caste-specific content, has raised questions around censorship and the portrayal of systemic inequality in mainstream Hindi cinema. However, with certification secured, Dhadak 2 is finally on track for release.
The film attempts to retain the essence of Pariyerum Perumal while navigating the sensitivities of a wider national audience. Its release date is now expected to be announced soon, as the makers prepare to unveil the film after months of uncertainty.
