Dharma Productions’ highly anticipated romance Chand Mera Dil hits theaters globally on May 22, 2026, but audiences will see a strictly altered version of the passionate love story. The Central Board of Film Certification mandated the removal of extensive intimate sequences between leads Ananya Panday and Lakshya to grant the project a U/A 16+ rating.
The censorship specifically targeted the film’s extended romantic moments. According to a detailed report regarding the mandated edits, the censor board demanded the excision of exactly 96 seconds of kissing visuals and required the producers to submit official consent letters for all child actors featured in the movie. A continuous one-minute and 36-second lip-lock was cut entirely from the theatrical print. An additional 10-second intimate shot was replaced with alternative visuals deemed more suitable for younger teenage audiences.
The production team complied with the visual cuts and the required paperwork to secure their theatrical window. The film was officially cleared by the censorship board on May 8, locking in a final approved runtime of 135.36 minutes along with the U/A 16+ classification.
The regulatory edits follow an intense online debate surrounding the film’s promotional material. When the initial teaser dropped in April 2026, a vocal section of netizens criticized the frequency of the kissing scenes. Social media users drew immediate comparisons to polarizing, aggressive love stories like Kabir Singh, questioning the necessity of the extended lip-locks. Directed by Vivek Soni, who previously helmed the Netflix hit Meenakshi Sundareshwar, the film attempts to blend classic Bollywood romance tropes with complicated modern relationship dynamics under the Dharma Productions banner led by Karan Johar and Adar Poonawalla.