Last updated on 12 July 2025.
India’s censor board is notorious for making movies more “culture-friendly”, and Superman is its latest victim.
Superman got trimmed by India’s Censor Board
CBFC has officially cut 3 scenes from Superman, which include 2 kiss scenes and a foul gesture. This resulted in 44 seconds taken out of the original film.
Superman’s big screen return by James Gunn was one of the most anticipated movies of the year. It is having great box office numbers in India. But when you watch it in a theatre, you might notice some abrupt cuts.
Here’s what got chopped:
1) Kissing Scenes Trimmed
There are two scenes in which we see Clark Kent kissing his girlfriend, Lois Lane. You must have seen these shots in the trailers. Let’s be real, it is a love story. But CBFC thinks it’s too much.
The Censor Board trimmed both kissing scenes from Superman, resulting in 33 seconds cut from the film.
SPOILER: The first kiss happens early in the movie before Lois interviews Clark. The second happens in the end when Superman is flying with Lois.
Checking the film certificate, you may notice that CBFC flagged it as “sensually visual”. They demanded these to be slashed if they wanted to get a UA 13+ certificate. Otherwise, it would have been given an A certificate, which restricted the screenings to adults only.
No studio would want to lose the teenage and younger audiences, so the only option was to do as the board said.
Internet was outraged by these stupid cuts, with many calling out CBFC on X and Reddit. Actress Shreya Dhanwanthary also posted about these 33-second censorship on her Instagram story: “What absolute NONSENSE is this?”
People who were invited to the Superman premiere on 9 July also were not happy with the cuts. This also leads to a confusion on why a certain length of kiss scene is approved. Is there a limit?
We may never understand the logic behind it. But there is a good short film made about this exact incident by Indian writer and comedian Varun Grover. It is literally called KISS and is streaming on MUBI.
I understand in India, the film certification board needs to keep some balance between global storytelling and cultural sensibilities. But there should be some mature decisions which should match the current reality of youth and not act like WhatsApp uncles.
2) Foul Language muted
There are no curse words in the Superman film, but there is some foul language. It has been a tradition by the CBFC not to allow it in public shows, and they continued their legacy.
However, it’s not that big of a deal because they didn’t cut the footage, just muted the words.
3) No Middle Finger
The 3rd scene cut from the Superman movie in India was Green Lantern showing a middle finger. This lead to an 8 second shot shortened to 2 seconds. Maybe the CBFC is not a fan of middle fingers.
SPOILERS: These scene takes place when Green Lantern goes to Jahranpur to save the people.
Coincidently, a similar editing happened with F1 shows in India. When Brad Pitt’s character sends someone a middle finger emoji, the finger was removed, leaving only a fist with no middle finger. Strange!
Just for comparison, Superman was given PG-13 rating in US, but there was no mention of sensual scenes. Same of UK rating by BBFC, where it got 12A rating, with only parental advice for action and language.
Superman released in India on 11 July 2025. Directed by James Gunn, this is the big screen return of the iconic hopeful superhero from DC comics.
David Corenswet is playing Clark Kent aka Superman, along with Rachel Borsnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hault as the villain Lex Luthor.
Takeaways
Now you know about what got censored from Superman movie in India. I don’t think these idiotic acts are going away anytime soon.
I can’t understand how a movie with UA certificate can’t have a kissing scene, while they allow all types of violent action in Indian movies. Sometimes, double meaning jokes are given a free pass too. I don’t know what is more impressionable.
Overall, the CBFC censorship didn’t result in a major modification to the film in this case. But this clearly highlights how the institution can dilute creative freedom in the country.
And if you don’t know who I am? I am Ranish Chauhan a.k.a. Fulmino Fan, and I love Marvel & DC Superheroes and Sci-Fi movies. You can also check my YouTube channel for amazing videos in Hindi.