--- title: India's Censorship Board Bleeped Out 'Bombay' From a Music Video description: "I'm not calling it Constantinople or Atlantis or whatever" canonical: https://time.com/3693246/india-mumbai-bombay-censor-board-bleep/ author: Rishi Iyengar article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-03T04:11:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:05:31.127Z article:section: World og:title: The Battle for 'Bombay' og:description: The censorship board bleeped out a reference to the Indian city's former name in a song. og:url: https://time.com/3693246/india-mumbai-bombay-censor-board-bleep/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3ffa308153ce7442/69877d50a988cafef76ac417/460665566.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The Mumbai central railway station, today named Chhatrapati og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Battle for 'Bombay' twitter:description: The censorship board bleeped out a reference to the Indian city's former name in a song. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3ffa308153ce7442/69877d50a988cafef76ac417/460665566.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # India's Censorship Board Bleeped Out 'Bombay' From a Music Video by [Rishi Iyengar](/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Feb 3, 2015 4:11 AM CUT  The Mumbai central railway station, today named Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, is formerly known as Victoria Terminus The Mumbai central railway station, today named Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, is formerly known as Victoria TerminusThierry Falise—LightRocket/Getty Images by [Rishi Iyengar](/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Feb 3, 2015 4:11 AM CUT Mihir Joshi, an Indian musician recording his first album last year, needed a word to rhyme with _today_ in one of his songs and found one that he thought fit perfectly. But India’s Central Board of Film Certification [disagreed](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-31088159 "undefined"), and replaced it with a beep when the music video debuted on TV over the weekend. The word they had an issue with, much to Joshi’s surprise, was _Bombay_. “I started laughing and I said, ‘What are you talking about?’” the 33-year-old singer [told](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/world/asia/mihir-joshi-mumbai-bombay.html?ref=world&%5Fr=1 "undefined") the New York _Times_. Bombay is the former name of India’s financial capital of over 20 million people, but in 1995 it was changed to Mumbai on the demands of the right-wing party governing the city at the time. The party claimed _Bombay_ was a symbol of British imperialism, and changed it to better represent local culture. Similar renaming initiatives were implemented in other Indian cities like Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), Chennai (formerly Madras) and Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore). But old habits die hard, and many Mumbai citizens still refer to the city as Bombay. In fact, as the _Wall Street Journal_ [points out](http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2015/02/02/five-mumbai-institutions-that-dont-shy-away-from-using-bombay/ "undefined"), there are several private and government institutions that have retained the colonial-era name. “I have nothing against the word _Mumbai_,” Joshi added. “I’m not calling it Constantinople or Atlantis or whatever.” The board’s decision prompted outrage from several Twitter users, whose choice of hashtag ironically made #Bombay the top trend in Mumbai on Monday. > [](https://twitter.com/cyclingsultan/status/561977501090844672) > [](https://twitter.com/toralvaria/status/561961348741885952) > [](https://twitter.com/mtanvirakhtar/status/561357555335561219) > [](https://twitter.com/AditiIndiaFirst/status/562457478466506754) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3693246/india-mumbai-bombay-censor-board-bleep/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3693246/india-mumbai-bombay-censor-board-bleep/"},"headline":"India's Censorship Board Bleeped Out 'Bombay' From a Music Video","datePublished":"2015-02-03T04:11:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:05:31.127Z","description":"\"I'm not calling it Constantinople or Atlantis or whatever\"","url":"https://time.com/3693246/india-mumbai-bombay-censor-board-bleep/","keywords":["India","Censorship","song","Mumbai"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3ffa308153ce7442/69877d50a988cafef76ac417/460665566.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rishi Iyengar","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3ffa308153ce7442/69877d50a988cafef76ac417/460665566.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Mumbai central railway station, today named Chhatrapati","caption":"The Mumbai central railway station, today named Chhatrapati","creditText":"Thierry Falise—LightRocket/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3693246/india-mumbai-bombay-censor-board-bleep/","name":"India's Censorship Board Bleeped Out 'Bombay' From a Music Video"}}]}] ```