Meenakshi Seshadri recalls CBFC’s Ghatak diktat amid Satluj row
4 min readNew DelhiJul 8, 2026 12:06 PM IST The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has once again found itself at the centre of controversy following the Satluj row. But as actor Meenakshi Sheshadri recently pointed out, questions over the board’s seemingly inconsistent standards are far from new. For decades, filmmakers have raised concerns over why certain scenes are cleared in one film while similar content faces objections in another, often without detailed public explanations. ‘Keep violence, remove kiss’ Speaking to Faridoon Shahryar, Meenakshi recalled her association with filmmaker Rahul Rawail and actor Sunny Deol, sharing an anecdote from the making of their 1987 film Dacait. “A lot of people don’t know that I had done a screen test for Betaab. Dharam Ji always wanted to cast me. He once told me, ‘I couldn’t cast you then, and you went on to work with Manoj Kumar and Subhash Ghai, and gave a blockbuster like Hero. I have to cast you someday.’ When Ghayal happened, he felt it was poetic justice because I finally worked …
