By Sharanya Gopinathan

So here’s the background. On the 22nd of June, it was reported that CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani had said that he wants the word ‘intercourse’ cut from the trailer of the Anushka Sharma and Shah Rukh Khan film Jab Harry Met Sejal. Two days later, he forgot that this is his real job and not some fun bet he’s laying with his friends in his living room, and told Mirror Now that if 1 lakh people voted for the word ‘intercourse’ to remain in the movie and the trailer, he would let it pass. He later added that the voters must be married and above the age of 36. You know, just because.

Of course, they got 1 lakh votes, and Mirror Now sent a reporter to ask Nihalani what he intends to do now that he’s lost his weird wager. Nihalani is now complaining that he’s being harassed by the channel. He said that they sent a young, female reporter who waited for six hours outside the CBFC office (as journalists do when they’re waiting to speak to someone), and then thrust a mike into his face asking questions about the “intercourse language” in the film. He complains that she followed him after he refused to answer and kept asking him questions. Unbelievably, this grown man then said that he “can’t talk about sex with a reporter young enough to be his daughter”.

Wait, there’s more. He then said that the reporter kept badgering him with questions and followed him into the lift, and that it was to his credit that he kept his cool. “What if I had lost my temper? She’d gave gone back and made a story about sexual harassment against me.”

Mr.Nihalani, why are you silent now?
First he challenges, then he shirks!
Censor boss has nothing to say to @MirrorNow. #SanskariNihalani pic.twitter.com/XiLw8P9tBM

— Mirror Now (@MirrorNow) June 30, 2017

It’s disgusting: you’d expect this kind of rhetoric from lonely men on the internet constantly crying about false rape cases, but from the head of the CBFC? What are you supposed to do if the head of the CBFC holds such astonishingly misogynistic opinions about women, and clearly can’t take his job seriously enough to a) do it without turning it into a nation-wide betting game, and b) discuss aspects of it in an adult and professional way without feeling shy when discussing censorship with a fellow working professional.

After everything he’s done and said, can’t we just go ahead and ban Nihalani already?