MUMBAI: The Central Board of Film Certification (CB) has turned down Aamir Khan‘s request to grant a U/A certification to his ambitious project Delhi Belly for its TV premiere. In fact the film‘s director Abhinay Deo was willing to re-edit and re-dub the content of the film to suit the guidelines of TV censorship.

It may be recalled that when the CB had granted Delhi Belly an A certification for release on the silver screen, Khan had thanked the Board for their decision to keep the content of the film relatively intact. However, the guidelines for TV are more stringent.
 
Despite having complied with the CB‘s guidelines, they went on to scissor around 17 to 18 sequences finally coming to the opinion that it was not appropriate for family viewing.

Finally, Khan decided to pay the revising committee a visit to pacify them after which the film was screened for the second time. But as his luck would have it, he returned disappointed as it was rejected.

MUMBAI: They say the stars in the universe change our lives. But when two of the biggest stars come together, they change a lot more!

Star India will be hoping for just that. Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan is making his debut on the small screen as a talk show host for Star India?s network channels in eight languages, signalling the broadest launch ever on Indian television.

Khan will anchor a show based on social issues that will simulcast on Star Plus, Star World, Star Jalsha, Star Pravah, Star Vijay, Star Utsav, Asianet and Suvarna. Produced by Aamir Khan Productions, the show will go on air early next year.

The name of the show that will simulcast in English, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Bengali, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam is yet to be decided.

"Over the last few years, I have been approached for various TV shows, but the offers never excited me. However, this show will be a journey of discovery of change, of emotion and human story which touch and inspire our daily life," Aamir said.

Star India CEO Uday Shankar said that the show marks a big step and is audacious. "No Bollywood star has shown the ability to move the markets with experimentation as much as Aamir has done. Star India is doing a show with him to reinforce the same agenda of creativity and to come with something which is impactfull and engaging. It is a new show with the most successful film star. When you are the leader, there are responsibilities you have towards people. This drives me and the company each time we do something. There is social responsibility that comes with leadership. What we do defines how the industry is perceived. We change the agenda for how the TV industry behaves."

Khan said that the project had been in the pipeline for three to four years. "This began as a dream. Uday came to me to do television. There have been offers for gameshows which did not excite me. I like watching gameshows but to be a part of one everyday did not excite me. Television is a strong medium. Star has massive reach. Its stature and personality are right for this show. I wanted Uday to be involved with the show. What we are setting out to do is very ambitious. The idea is audacious and challenging. The show is about connecting with people, change, hopes and dreams. I told Uday that I wanted to use all his channels. I wanted it to be a pan India show."

Shankar said that the show is about real life situations and real life people. "It is not a fiction show. The show has been woven around Aamir. It will have the dramatic intensity of fiction with real life characters."

Indian television has attracted movie stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Preity Zinta, Hrithik Roshan, Juhi Chawla, Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan to act in different roles.