The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has cleared Ekta Kapoor’s upcoming thriller, Ek Villain, with a total of eight cuts.
The producers have agreed to the censors’ directives and are cutting out on scenes which include reducing the action sequence in the climax, toning down a scene in which a character is doused in petrol and a third in which a girl is being threatened.

Apart from these scenes, the Board has also told the makers to mute the word hazaam (barber in Hindi) from the film.
Earlier, the use of the word barber in Shah Rukh Khan’s 2009 film Billu Barber had irked the community and the protests had forced the makers to remove the word from the title. Since then, the censor is making sure to mute the word or forbid the use of it.

Grapevine has it, The Board told the Ek Villain producers to tone down the action sequences. There was also a scene which had blood oozing from a character’s neck, which the Board felt was too gory. That has been now replaced with a close-up of the girl’s face instead. Also, the word ‘hazaam’ has been muted.

“The film has been cleared with a U/A certificate after some minor action cuts. Together the cuts amount to just a minute of screen time.” Tanuj Garg confirmed. The CBFC asked the producers to mute the word hazaam as they did not want any community to object.