Videsh Heaven on earth Gets A Grade

Deepa Mehta’s film on domestic violence has been given an ‘A’ certificate by the Censor Board.

Videsh , starring Preity Zinta and Vansh Bhardwaj , is the story of a Punjabi woman who marries an NRI in Canada. But as she settles into her new life, she is repeatedly at the receiving end of domestic violence from her husband.

Censor Board officials saw the film last week and found it too violent to be given ‘U’ (Unrestricted Public Exhibition) or ‘U/A’ (Unrestricted exhibition under parental/adult guidance) certificate. They asked director Deepa Mehta to cut down on the violent scenes in the film.

The movie is produced by BR films and its CEO Sanjay Bhutiani told reporters: “The censor board objected to brutality in a few scenes and therefore Deepa and B R Films have decided to go along with the 'A' certificate which would not compromise on the creative integrity of the film.”

Upon the reason for accepting the ‘A’ certificate at the cost of losing young audiences, Bhutiani said: “The essence of the film is to highlight social issues and domestic violence is one of them.”

‘Videsh’ or Heaven On Earth is set to release on March 27.