While the Union Home Ministry ordered three cuts, the Examining Committee of the Central Board of Film Certification made two minor cuts. Bhatt dubbed the home ministry's order to delete visuals of members of the mob wearing saffron headbands as a `cultural emergency'. The ministry has asked also that a scene depicting a police officer as being an mute witness to an assault on a member of a particular community be deleted. While the Examining Commitee had asked Zakhm producer Pooja Bhatt to delete the word Musalman from the dialogue of a senior policeman and asked that the junior policeman be depicted as a Hindu to `balance' the portrayal of the police department.

Another scene which depicts a policeman offering to settle scores on behalf of a particular community has also been axed. And inthe scene which has a Hindu mob rushing into a hospital to stop the body of the hero's mother, a Muslim, being taken out for burial, the visuals where members of the mob are wearing safron head hands has also been deleted.

``When the Examining Committee had suggested only minor cuts for an adult certificate and we were ready to accept them, where was the need for the Central Board of Film Certification to refer my film to the Union Home Ministry and the Police Commissioner of Mumbai? The censor Board is incapable of judging films on its own merit, which is why it is taking guidance from outside quarters,'' pointed out Bhatt.