Pathaan plot, details of sex and violence in the Shah Rukh Khan starrer REVEALED; BBFC gives 12A rating

Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and John Abraham starrer Pathaan is all set to release in theatres tomorrow, and fans are super-excited for the film to release. The film has already recorded the biggest advance ever for a Bollywood film, surpassing the previous record holder, WAR. Now, ahead of the film’s release, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has given Shah Rukh Khan starrer Pathaan a 12A rating, and revealed the plot of the film, as well as details of violence and sex. SPOILER ALERT: The article includes a few spoilers from Pathaan, which will release tomorrow.

Pathaan rating and plot as mentioned by BBFC

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) mentions the rating breakdown and gives a few spoilers from the actioner. The organization’s website mentions that Pathaan is a Hindi-language action thriller about an undercover cop and an ex-con who work together to ‘prevent the release of a deadly synthetic virus.’  Revealing the 12A rating, the website mentions that an uncut 15 rating was available, but the distributor chose to cut scenes of strong violence in order to receive their preferred 12A classification.   

Details about sex and violence in Pathaan

The rating info on the BBFC website mentions that the film features ‘occasional sight of bloody facial injuries’, and ‘blood from a gunshot wound’ post-violence. It also mentions that after the characters are infected with the deadly virus, they are shown with ‘boils on their face’. Under sex, the BBFC mentions, “There is a moderate sex reference in which a woman rubs her bare knee against a man’s clothed crotch. Later a man becomes embarrassed when a woman wears lingerie in a bedroom and asks him to tend to her wound. A woman presses a man’s hand against her bare leg seductively. There are undetailed verbal references to prostitution and a man mistakenly uses the word ‘boobles’ instead of ‘rubles’ after becoming distracted in a comic scene.”

Under violence, BBFC mentions that the film shows shootings, stabbings, strangling, explosions, and hand-to-hand fighting. “In order to avoid dying from a painful virus, a woman takes her own life by shooting herself in the head, but we do not see this onscreen,” read the detail on the website.

BBFC then mentions a warning for threat and horror which states that a pregnant woman is shown gagged, tied, and threatened with a gun. Apart from this, ‘a woman and a man are briefly seen being waterboarded.’

Pathaan is helmed by Siddharth Anand, and will release in theatres on 25^th January 2023.