'Delhi Belly' toned down in Hindi

Jun 29, 2011 Subhash K Jha

Mumbai, June 29 (IANS) "Delhi Belly", possibly Aamir Khan's most irreverent film to date, got less flamboyant in language and content.

The most off-colour jokes, gags and dialogues about conception, 'miss conception' and other sexual concerns that Bollywood never conceived, have been toned down in the Hindi version of the film. Dirty words have been downsized, so to speak.

Producer Aamir Khan took a conscious decision to make the Hindi version less risque and offensive. Language in the dubbed Hindi version of the film is far less in-your-face colourful than in the English version.

The original decision was to maintain the smut-quotient of the English version in the Hindi version.

"The initial plan was to bring all the angrezi abusive swear words, terms questioning the characters' parentage and the colourful coinages describing the copulatory act, into a faithful translation into Hindi," a source says.

But then apparently Aamir, in all his wisdom, decided that those words sounded really obnoxious in Hindi.

"There was no way we could have the crude Hindi 'ch' word for reproduction being reproduced in the Hindi version of 'Delhi Belly'. Wherever the 'F' word occurs, we've softened the blow by using a Hindi euphemism like 'leta hai' and 'deti hai'," he says.

Ironically there were more Hindi expletives and cusswords in the English version than there are now in Hindi.

Says the source: "For instance, the three friends call one another by the crudest word for the phallus in Hindi. That's there in the English version but gone from the dubbed Hindi version."

So is the Hindi version of "Delhi Belly" targeted at a more conservative, less irreverent audience?

Says Aamir's spokesperson: "You could say that. The Hindi version is far less colourful. This was a conscious decision taken to make the Hindi version more acceptable to a wider adult audience."

But there was no original English version, he adds.

"What you're referring to as an English version of 'Delhi Belly' is actually a 'Hinglish' version. Seventy percent of it is in English and 30 percent is in Hindi. But the Hindi version is 100 percent in Hindi. And yes the Hindi version is far less colourful in language."

Perhaps Ranbir Kapoor can now watch the Hindi version of "Delhi Belly" with his parents.

Earlier when he was asked, why he opted not to do the film, he said: "I couldn't see myself watching the film with my parents at the premiere."

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