This has been a bone of contention for film producers, directors, actors and the fans in the country where a ‘censor board’ decides what the audiences can and cannot watch. And this raises the question if the censor board in doing that, has overstepped its limits and boundaries.
The CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) is a statutory censorship and classification body under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. It is tasked with “regulating the public exhibition of films under the provisions of the Cinematograph Act 1952”. Films are to be certified under 4 categories: U (unrestricted Public Exhibition), U/A (parental guidance for children below the age of 12 years), A (restricted to adults) and S (restricted to any special class of persons). Ever since Pahlaj Nihalani was appointed as the twenty seventh chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) on January 19, 2015, there are claims that his sanskari’ scissors has only dragged India backwards. His appointment is controversial given his propensity for censoring films instead of merely certifying them.
The Danish Girl is based on the 2000 fictional novel of the same name about a Danish Painters Lili Elbe who is the first known recipients of sex reassignment surgery. It’s not the first film to face a ban. Filmmaker Prakash Jha’s new film production Lipstick Under My Burkha was also denied a certificate by the censor board. The film story revolves about four women - burqa-clad college girl, a young beautician, a mother of three and a 55-year-old widow who rediscovers her sexuality. Social media has criticised Pahlaj for demanding the kissing scenes from James Bond’s Spectre be cut. He also called for the deletion of a scene in Anushka Sharma’s new production Phillauri where a Hindu mantra is chanted to ward of a ghost. Last year, the Anurag Kashyap won a battle against the board that had demanded 90 cuts in Udta Punjab, after the courts allowed the release of the film with one cut.
Will producers have to run to the court everyime the CBFC oversteps its limits and question why the scenes such as item numbers in Bollywood movies never get cut.
