- People closely associated with civil liberties in the country would have noticed how society in India is increasingly becoming intolerant towards certain aspects of our day-to-day living, which affects our soft power. Of course, Indian culture is still largely patriarchal, misogynistic, and leaning towards medieval practices, despite making humongous progress on every front needs no further elaboration. Yes, efforts undertaken by successive governments and equal contributions from people concerned have largely improved the lot of our womenfolk, but the reality on the ground is anything but welcoming is stating the obvious. Indeed, we are aware of how ‘hurt the sentiments and emotions’ always play out from different quarters from time to time as well.
PC: News24
- Who is targeted for this oft-repeated occurrence? Who else but the movies must traverse between aggressive moral policemen representing a particular community, official censorship, governments, and courts as well. What’s the premise? Hurt sentiments and playing to the gallery to whip up emotions. The country has witnessed several instances of how movies produced have been subjected to official and unofficial censorship in the last few years. As you would appreciate, every case is different, though. Take, for instance, the controversy surrounding the Punjabi movie Sardaarji 3. The price the movie is paying for starring a Pakistani actress is forgoing an Indian release. Never mind that the movie was made before Operation Sindoor.
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PC: NewsDrum
- Who is at a loss here? Indian producers lose out big time. Let’s look around at how movies are increasingly under attack from various sources. Malayalam Janaki vs State of Kerala. CBFC decides that the titular character suffering traumatic experiences causes grave offence to religious sentiments, because Janaki is another name for Sita. A name tweak is negotiated. Punjabi-Hindi Punjab 95 is a biographical film that has been hanging fire at CBFC since 2022. Its director says that the 127 cuts demanded will make it CBFC’s film, not his. Hindi Udaipur Files: This one was kosher with CBFC, but on the eve of its pan-India screening, the Delhi high court enabled the objectors to make their case to the central government. So, every case is the same.
PC: LinkedIn
- Here, any hurt-sentiment lobby can derail any film. Courts and government cannot be relied on to deliver on freedom of expression guarantees. Worse, the statutory film certification body itself is often stepping up to do the derailment. Sometimes, it’s decency and morality’ obsession is reminiscent of a bygone era where censorship ruled the roost primarily based on abhorrent practices. Mind you, CBFC is carrying on its job too much in tandem with its British Raj roots, immersed in obsolete morality. As if in a bizarre transference of the white man’s burden. The Indian film industry faces plenty of threats from everywhere. Clipping its wings doesn’t behove what our country stands for. An Aspirational society should be accommodating creative licenses.
. This trend threatens creative freedom and freedom of expression, with numerous films facing bans, cuts, or delays due to claims of hurt religious sentiments, ultimately harming the Indian film industry and its aspirational values.){kind=link}