This, in itself, has the makings of a potboiler - the story of religious censorship in India. We've made a fine art of religious censorship, working in advance to, sort of, 'control' or 'stop' the occurrence of any unpleasantness in the future.

Often, it is religious heads, or political parties that can foresee the future of such occurrences, so as to make sure the present is also made uneasy with protests and threats to go to court. Most recently, various miffed Catholic groups called for protests against Priyadarshan ready-for-release movie, Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal, demanding removal of scenes portraying clergy in an "offensive manner".

As a nation, we've watched Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses being banned, MF Husain's artwork being vandalised, writers being taken to court over mindless PILs, and even something as obscure as this: the cancelling of an opera, Babur In London, which Indian artiste Jeet Thayil and British composer Edward Rushton were working on.

It was supposed to be a six-city Indian tour, but the organisers chickened out as they were wary of offending religious sentiments. But most of all, according to the many who religiously (sorry for the pun) intervene, our religious sentiments are most hurt by various Bollywood movies. In January this year, the Christian Secular Forum (CSF) was very upset, and they said the entire Christian community was too.

Reason? The song, Hosanna, in the Hindi film Ekk Deewana Tha. It wasn't the whole song, just the word hosanna. The forum's general secretary had wanted to know at that time whether Rahman would have used Islamic or Hindu prayer words with equal ease "in a carnal love song?".

But this is not a one-off incident. These days, more than making 100 crores, Bollywood seems to be "hurting religious sentiments". In 2008, Akshay Kumar had to actually apologise to various Sikh religious heads, and prostrate at the Rakabganj Gurudwara in Delhi, to ask for forgiveness for the sin of making Singh Is Kinng!

A special committee of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) wanted to clear the film for screening, and if it was a hit, wanted to use the film as an example to bring patit Sikhs (those who cut their hair and beard), to make them puran Sikhs! A special screening was organised, and the committee raised objections and demanded that changes be made.

This started a new trend in Bollywood - that of 'religious screening'. Almost all the films released post this, 2009 onwards, saw 'religious objections' being raised and special screenings being organized. Even Hollywood films were not spared.

Now, most makers and actors prefer to quietly submit the movie to a 'religious screening' to, as one PR told us when Akshay's OMG: Oh My God! was screened for religious heads in Delhi recently, "avoid future problems closer to the release date."

And just how much of a necessity this has become can be gauged from the fact that when Sunny Deol's movie Jo Bole So Nihaal ignored such 'religious objections', there were two bomb blasts near the Delhi theatres it was being screened in.

Such is the religious censorship fear among Bollywood now, that Ajay Devgn, who had already clarifies that his film didn't portray Sikhs in a bad light, or hurt Sikh sentiments, had special 'turban experts' flown in from faraway places so that he could get the turban tied correctly in Son Of Sardaar.