Why Madhur Bhandarkar crying over cuts ordered by CBFC for Indu Sarkar is unfair

By Fenil Seta -

July 24, 2017 - 5:23 PM IST

One person who never fails to step out of the radar of controversy is Pahlaj Nihalani. Ever since he became the chairman of the Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC) aka Censor Board, he has been widely criticized for muting and deleting scenes or dialogues that are not even remotely controversial.

Why Madhur Bhandarkar crying over cuts ordered by CBFC for Indu Sarkar is unfair

Just 2 weeks back, it was Shah Rukh Khan’s starrer Jab Harry Met Sejal that grabbed eyeballs thanks to Pahlaj’s claims that the word ‘intercourse’ mouthed by Anushka Sharma in the promo is objectionable. Now he is in the news after he ordered lots of cuts in Madhur Bhandarkar’s upcoming film on the 1975 Emergency, Indu Sarkar. Starring Kirti Kulhari, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Anupam Kher, the hard-hitting film has rubbed the Congress party in the wrong way since they feel that the film portrays a wrong picture of what happened in history. Madhur Bhandarkar was already fighting their allegations and the Censor cuts have added to his woes. He was astonished to learn that all significant terms, in context of the film, like RSS, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Morarji Desai, Lal Krishna Advani, Jayaprakash Narayan etc, were told to be removed from the film.

Just like the other makers, Madhur Bhandarkar came out in the press and admitted that he has been ‘deeply disappointed’ with Censor diktats. What’s bewildering however is – what made Madhur go to the Censors just twenty days before the release of his film, especially when he knows how our ‘Sanskaari’ Censor functions? It’s not like Pahlaj overnight became the Censor chief. He’s at the helm of affairs since two-and-a-half-years and consistently butchering films. Then why on earth did Madhur wait all this while? Madhur Bhandarkar is known for his fondness for the ruling party in power, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). Did he assume that his affinity to BJP would come handy in clearing his ‘anti-Congress’ film smoothly?

We are against the regressive policies of the Censors and the manner in which they order unjustified cuts. Our grouse here however is for the makers who don’t act on time and then get disappointed with the Censors. At present, it’s the Examining Committee (EC) who first sees the film. If a filmmaker is unhappy with the cuts ordered by the EC, he/she can approach the Revising Committee (RC). Even if this committee doesn’t satisfy the filmmaker, he/she then take up his film to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal who usually clear the film with zero or minimal cuts. Last year, Anurag Kashyap got his very shocking film Raman Raghav 2.0 cleared unscathed thanks to the Tribunal. However, this entire process takes time, a few months usually. It’s a godsend in the era of Pahlaj Nihalani’s chairmanship. Sadly, many filmmakers make films with shocking content but approach the Censors at the last moment. When they order unfair cuts, most of the makers accept it since they don’t have time to fight it out. Later, they cry their heart out in the media about the cuts.

It’s shocking that such instances keep on happening regularly when everyone knows the true picture. Hence, it’s advisable that if a film has so-called objectionable content, it is better to approach the Censors way in advance so that your film can get cleared from RC or Tribunal before the release. Lipstick Under My Burkha, a revolutionary film by Alankrita Shrivastava, that released on July 21, was not certified at all by EC for its ‘lady-oriented content’. That film had the advantage as it didn’t have a release date. They got the chance to fight and only then, they announced the release plans.

Agreed that most makers can’t afford to do so and need to release their film by a certain date. But then expressing your grouse in the media is unfair, especially when you know what’s going to happen to your film at the hands of the Censors. Till the progressive Shyam Benegal report is not accepted, the scene at the Censor office is going to remain unchanged and it’s advisable that filmmakers act accordingly.