'Are you Going to Tear the Pages of History Books'?

Dressed in his characteristic black overcoat and red turban, Jyotirao Phule (Pratik Gandhi) rolls up the blinds on a window, with determination written across his face.

- Apeksha Priyadarshini

As he brings light into the darkness, quite literally, his voice thunders over the visual: “Humara desh ek bhavuk desh hai. Yahaan dharm aur jati ke naam par logon ko ladana bada hi saral hai. Ye bhavishya mein bhi hoga. Bas kranti ki is jyot ko jalaye rakhna” (Our country is a sentimental one. It is very easy here to pit one against another on the pretexts of religion and caste. This will also happen in the future. Keep this flame of revolution alive). This scene from the trailer of the upcoming film Phule is prophetic, not just in terms of the social fabric of our country, but also with regards to the fate of the film itself.

Ananth Mahadevan’s Phule was slated to release across theatres on April 11, 2025, coinciding with the 198th birth anniversary of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, one of India’s pioneering social reformers and anti-caste activists. But shortly after its trailer launch, the film drew the ire of certain Brahmin groups such as the Akhil Bhartiya Brahmin Samaj, Brahmin Federation and Parshuram Aarthik Vikas Mahamandal, which claimed that the film showed their community in a “bad light.” A film made on two of the foremost anti-caste revolutionaries of the country has ironically been accused of “promoting casteism”.

Although the CBFC has agreed to give a ‘U’ certification to the film, it has come at a cost. Among the several changes suggested by the Board is the changing of caste names such as Mang and Mahar, replacing the visual of “man carrying broom” to “boys throwing cow dung balls at Savitribai”, removing a voice over about the caste system, changing the subtitle of “caste” to “varna” and modifying the dialogue of “3,000 saal purani gulami” to “Kai saal puraani hain.”

With its “amendments” in place,