/> The stories of censorial vagaries in our country are legion. But even by the whimisical standards of the value-systems that judge sound and visuals in Hindi films what the makers of Bhindi Bazaar Inc went through, qualifies as queer if not outright bizarre.

On viewing of the film about Mumbai's underbelly (the pimps, prostitutes, gangsters and other glorious outcasts) the tense producer was not told to remove any of the strongly suggestive visuals and content. He was told that he would have to change a character's name.

The character played by new actor Gautam Sharma was called Darzi. And as we all know, the censors do not permit the mention of a community or its profession by name or insinuation.

But removing Darzi's name was easier said than done.

Over to the producer Karan Arora, "It wasn't just the name. The name had a context and a history and that context is explained many times in the film. So I had to not just alter the name Darzi but also the reason why he was called Darzi. You see Darzi wants to be a fashion designer which his friends in the chawl didn't understand. So they called him Darzi. "

Apparently there were at least 6-7 scenes in the film where the character Darzi is asked about his name. Not only did the producer have to change the character's name from Darzi to Tezz he also had to re-write and re-dub the lines explaining why he is now called Tezz.

This meant an added cost of Rs 15 lakhs for the snall-budget film.

Says Arora, "We had to get 15 of the actors to dub again in all the scenes where Darzi's character appears. And we had to alter the dialogues in keeping with the character's changed name from Darzi to Tezz. It was time consuming and frustrating. "

Arora says he would've fought back if he had time. "But we are just a week from release. My director is not a Vishal Bhardwaj or Sudhir Mishra who can fight for every word that is altered by the censorboard. But I must say I was surprised by the change that I was asked to make.

My film has a lot of very strong language. I had gone prepared with alternatives if the need be, or even take beeps instead of cuts. But to be asked to removed a character's name and that too when his name's background is part of the dialogues throughout the film meant a lot of unnecessary modification and expenditure which in could least afford.

I had to cut down on my publicity budget to satisfy the censors' whims. "