/> Wonder who has more reason to feel offended, cricketers or sex workers.

But Mahesh Bhatt's forthcoming film Jannat where Emran Hashmi plays a bookie compares the two professions....and explicitly says cricketers are like prostitutes.

What's more, the censor board saw nothing objectionable on the world's poshest profession being compared with the oldest.

Says a character in Jannat, "Dekhiye Sir. Cricketers aur prostitutes ke beech zyada farq nahin hota. Donon ki jawani khatm to kahani khatm."

In fact producer Mahesh Bhatt is supremely gung-ho about this latest eyebrow-raising tryst with controversy.

"Yes, those are the exact words in Jannat. And what's wrong with that? If you think about it, we're all prostitutes. And at least they deliver what they promise. I'm no different from a prostitute.

I too am a pleasure peddler. And please, I'd rather be a prostitute than a saint," says the eternal celluloid renegade who has earlier whipped up a frenzy of controversies in movies like Arth, Zakham and Woh Lamhe.