In Kennedy, Censor Board Changes ‘Donald Trump’ To ‘Pump Trump’, Dawood Ibrahim To ‘Pakistan Don’: Report

Anurag Kashyap’s Kennedy, featuring Sunny Leone and Rahul Bhat in the lead, is set to arrive on Zee5 on February 20. Ahead of its premiere, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) made several changes to the film before passing it with an A certificate.

According to a report by Bollywood Hungama, the abusive word ‘motherf***’ was muted in both dialogues and subtitles. References to ‘Donald Trump’ were replaced with ‘Pump Trump’, while visuals of Dawood Ibrahim, along with the dialogue ‘Dawood Ibrahim ne…1993 mein’ were removed and replaced with ‘Pakistan Don’. 

A 14-second scene with the degrading dialogue ‘Matunga, Matunga…Pungi bajaao’ was deleted. The makers were also asked to add an anti-smoking disclaimer to all smoking scenes. After making these changes, Kennedy received its censor certificate on November 23, 2023. The film has a runtime of 148 minutes and 54 seconds (2 hours, 28 minutes, 54 seconds).

Kennedy is a gritty neo-noir crime drama written and directed by Anurag Kashyap. The film features Rahul Bhat as Uday Shetty, a former cop presumed dead and now living under the alias Kennedy. He secretly works as a hitman for the corrupt police system in Mumbai. His life takes a turn when he meets Charlie, played by Sunny Leone. The mysterious woman intensifies his inner conflict and draws him deeper into the dark moral landscape.

In an interview with PTI, Sunny Leone shared her experience of working with filmmaker Anurag Kashyap. The actress said, “A director of Anurag Kashyap’s calibre has not been a part of my resume up until now. So, there was the pressure to do a good job, to meet expectations. I asked for the script. He said you cannot have the script. I warned him I would bug him for information about my lines and character every day.”

Sunny Leone shared that she attended workshops before the film’s shooting. “I think Charlie is a strong woman who is caught between two realities. One is the life that she wants to have, the other is the truth that she lives. She hides a lot behind her smile, behind her laugh,” she added.

Kennedy had its international premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. The film was also screened at the Sydney Film Festival, followed by a screening at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. 

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