Film Censorship in India

India's I&B Ministry responsible for the media had a meeting with film producers and the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to consider amendments to the Cinematograph Act 1952.

If the Ministry has its way, films will no longer be certified as U, U/A, A (adults only). Instead, they will fall under any one of the following categories:

• Universal U
• Above 12 years of age (Under Parental Guidance)
• Above 15 years of age (Under Parental Guidance)
• Above 18 years of age

Filmmakers are not too happy with the proposal as they feel it will limit their audience. CEO of the Film & Television Producers Guild of India, Kulmeet Makkar, said:

Yes, there is a proposal by the I&B Ministry but it would be very subjective in a country like ours, where children face different levels of exposure in different cities. One needs to understand India's diversity to understand the perspective of filmmakers. We hope the new certification is not enforced.

The proposals will have to be formalised and passed into law by Parliament before changes can be made to the issuing of film certificates.

In the light of continuing tension between India and Pakistan, the Indian Censor Board has sought to distance itself from neighbour Pakistan's film board. It wants a new name, Indian Board for Film Certification .

Both Indian and Pakistani film censor boards are currently known as the CBFC, Central Board of Film Certification in India and Central Board of Film Censors in Pakistan. This creates a lot of confusion on international platforms especially at film festivals, said Leela Samson, chairperson of the Indian film board.

The CBFC also wants to hide its work as a censor board by spinning the illusion that it is a classification board. Samson claimed:

In today's day and time, censoring films doesn't make sense ...UNLESS... there are some gross violations such as a constitutional violation or something that hurts communal or religious sentiments [or nudity or sex or vulgarity or indecency or obscenity etc...], we will not recommend the use of scissors. Instead, we will only certify the films as adult or ones that should be viewed with care.

Alongside this the board points out that using English language certificates is not a good idea. Samsom said:

It is a tragedy that... we continue to use English letters to denote whether a film is adult or fit for universal viewing... Most film goers don't even know what 'A' or 'U' stands for.

The CBFC wants certification to be denoted in regional languages apart from using conspicuous pictorial signs or illustrations to inform a viewer if a film has scenes of extreme violence or sex and if it is suitable for children.

Besides the board has asked the government to create more categories of certification.  In particular a new category for children between the ages of 10 and 15 years is one such idea being considered.

India's information and broadcasting ministry and the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) want to introduce two age categories, 12+ and 15+ instead of the current U/A category so that parents have some idea on whether a film should be watched by their children or not. A censor board spokesman said:

U/A does not mean the film is okay for children to watch. It means that parents should use their discretion. A clear indication of which age is suitable for a film is the best way to avoid any confusion.

For both 12-plus and 15-plus-certified films, children will have to be accompanied by adults to a theatre and may need to show age proof, if asked. Under current rules, a child of 12 years or older can watch U/A films with adults in a theatre.

Sources in the I&B ministry said it had become imperative for the censor board to ensure clarity on which films could be allowed for unrestricted viewing by children. Officials said the step to review the U/A certification became necessary after an uproar over a TV channel slotting The Dirty Picture in the afternoon, when children are likely to watch television.

The changes will be brought through an amendment to the Cinematograph Act, likely to be tabled in the monsoon session of Parliament.

India's Information and Broadcasting Ministry is all geared up to expand film censorship classifications.

U [Universal] , A [Adult] and U/A [Children must be accompanied by an adult] will continue to exist. A+ [indicating excessive gore, violence or sleaze], 12+ and 15+ are set to be introduced.

The proposed changes amending the Cinematograph Act will be implemented by October 2012.

Film censors of the CBFC said the need for devising new categories was felt as the film industry pressed for classification along international lines.

Author Jaishree Misra, who has worked as a film classifier at the British Board of Film Classification in London, thinks it's an extremely positive step to have a more refined system than the one India has had so far:

The pressure has been growing (both from filmmakers and society) to move from less censorship to more classification. Consequently, parents rely more and more on the system to guide them and so the more 'signals' they get from the symbols, the better it is. The film industry can only benefit when audiences trust them not to have harmful content in their films and their regulatory system is the best way to achieve this.

While the Prakash Jha film Rajneeti has generated a lot of political heat for its alleged depiction of Congress President Sonia Gandhi's life, Congress leaders, in their capacity as members of the Censor Board, said they found nothing objectionable about the Nehru-Gandhi family in the film. Thy were objecting to the denigration of the political class across the board.

Congress leaders Tom Vadakkan and Pankaj Sharma were part of the six-member Revising Committee of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for which the film had been screened at Liberty in Mumbai last week. The committee raised many objections and wanted to give an adults only A cerifictate.

Prakash Jha appealed to the Film Certificate Appellate Tribunal. In its order dated May 25, the Tribunal overruled the Revising Committee's decision and granted UA certificate to the film, which is scheduled to be released on June 4.

The fcensors of the Revising Committee had the following objections:

• They wanted to reduce love-making scenes. Prakash Jha told The Sunday Express that he had voluntarily agreed to cut the length of such scenes from 37 seconds to 18 seconds. Later he said that he wood restore the footage for the DVD release.
• The committee wanted to delete various dialogue used to reference the to represent Muslim/ Hindu communities; the Tribunal did not find these in violation of the guidelines.
• The Congress members also objected to a scene where an expert is shown speaking on a news channel on how electronic voting machines (EVMs) could be tampered with.
• Sources said that Congress members had also objected to the suggestive manners of a woman ticket-seeker who comes to meet a politician. Besides, there is another scene involving two men, which, Congress leaders felt, suggested homosexuality.

Never before has it happened in the history of Bollywood films that a complete frontal nude scene has been shot. But the film Love Sex aur Dhokha has chosen this unconventional route of telling a tale of love, sex and betrayal through candid points of view.

The controversial scene in question was shot with Indian actors. Reveals a source, The script required the scene to be shot with full frontal. It took a lot of courage for both the actors to do it. LSD does not aim to shock audiences but does aim at mirroring reality .

LSD features a bunch of newcomers with no mainstream trappings to it. Also, sex and voyeurism form a major driving force of the narrative of this film which is now ready and heading towards 19th March release.

Balaji Motion Pictures and Dibaker Banerjee's Love Sex aur Dhokha talks about how voyeurism is indeed a reality in today's society.

Reveals a source from Balaji, Ekta and Dibaker went on a nation wide hunt for these actors after the script was in place. Since the film mirrors reality, having known faces would not have done justice to the story. This is the reason why the makers have adopted a marketing strategy of not going out with the LSD's actors' identities since it would only increase the audience's curiosity.

Adds the source, LSD has been in the news for its offensive lyrics, controversial subject, cuss words used in the film and never seen before nude scenes. Not revealing the actors starring in the film will only further pique audience curiosity about the film.

Dibakar says, I am apprehensive about the reaction of the members of the censor board as this kind of film needs that kind of sensitivity. I am all for the creative integrity of the subject matter and my job is to see that the message is delivered. It's not about the sex scene but how to retain the integrity of the story while remaining within the legal limits of the land. I'd say it's a genre-defining film and the most emotionally draining, gut-wrenching film I've made till now. There's a lot of heart burn in LSD.

Update: Full frontal hype all bollox

18th March 2010. From movies.ndtv.com

The hyped scene showing a bare-backed woman on top of a man in director Dibakar Banerjee's much talked-about film Love Sex Aur Dokha will be blurred on screen.

The director says: We had submitted a DVD of the film to the censor board so they'd recommend cuts in advance and avoid delays. The censor preview recommendation suggests that we blur the sex scene.

We were told this scene was too graphic and needed tempering. There's no way the censors could allow the love-making scene. We've clearly been told that even before the film is submitted for censoring.

The number of adult Bollywood films will fall in the next six months if the information and broadcasting ministry introduces two new categories

I&B minister Ambika Soni has assured filmmakers that the law would be amended to introduce the categories.

Director Vishal Bharadwaj and a member of the expert committee of the national film awards, said, We met the minister recently and she promised the rating system would be introduced in the next six months. That will help bring down the number of adult films. We don't have a rating system now to decide which film is suitable for a 12 or a 15-year-old. Even CBFC chief Sharmila Tagore has promised to introduce the rating system.

The Censor Board of Film Certification has sent a proposal to the ministry for amendment in the law asking it to introduce more categories for film certification. There are only three categories now: U, U/A and A. U stands for unrestricted public exhibition and this rating is given to films suitable for family viewing ; it shouldn't disturb even the youngest of children and contains no violence and sensuality.

CBFC regional officer Vinayak Azad said, The proposal is for introduction of two more categories to be introduced as a law after amendment of the Cinematograph Act 1952 These two categories are more like an advisory for the consumer which informs the audiences more specifically about the content of the film. These categories are there in most countries.

Director Dinkar Rao's film Black Widow – The Land Bleeds is up for release after a long struggle with the Censor Board.

This film, which is set against the backdrop of communal riots in India, completed its shooting way back in 2005 but was banned as senior police officers objected to its release claiming it would create a law and order problem.

Rao, however, approached the Appellate Tribunal. The Appellate Tribunal passed the film but with almost 25-50% cuts in the riot scenes and the rape sequences. There were 10 audio cuts. This was one of the most frustrating periods, recounts the director.

Black Widow is a one night story of a Muslim woman called Zoya, played by Ratna Malay, and her interaction with others including a right wing leader.

Though the film was highly appreciated at its special screening at the Cinecitta Studious where the audiences felt that the subject has been treated in a balanced way unlike the overdramatic approach of most Indian filmmakers, it has met with equal resistance from right wing Hindus and certain Muslim groups besides, of course, the Censor Board.

We have faced problems from right wing Hindus (because a character in the film looks like Raj Thackeray) as well as fanatical Muslims whenever we have had any screenings. But what happens to Zoya is happening to many women all over the world. It could be Mumbai, Gujarat, Iraq, Kashmir, Afghanistan or anywhere in the world, defends Dinkar.

India's release of Slumdog Millionaire' s English and Hindi version have been given separate certificates by the Censor Board.

The film's English version Slumdog Millionaire bagged an A certificate and its Hindi dubbed version, Slumdog Crorepati , bagged a U/A certificate [Children allowed if accompanied by adult].

A source informs, There is heavy use of swear words in the film, hence its English version received an A certificate. But when the distributors brought the Hindi dubbed version for censorship, they had already muted the Hindi swear words and so it managed to get a U/A certificate.

So while the English version of the film will have a restricted audience due to the explicit use of swear words, its Hindi version will have a scope for a wider reach.

The film is releasing on 23 January in India with approximately 200 prints.