Implement the Benegal panel recommendations

The current stand-off between the film fraternity and the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) over the release of Alankrita Shrivastava's film, lipstick Under my Burkha, is a direct consequence of the failure to revamp the Soviet-style functioning of the board, which has for many years been carrying the authoritarian tag of being sanskari. Sadly, even as India was able to shift from being a socialist economy, it failed to give up its socialist baggage. This is not for the first time that the board has put a ban on a film, nor will it this the last one. In the controversial drug-themed film, Udta Punjab, the CBFC and its chief Pahlaj Nihalani were at the receiving end of public ire for their suggestion of about 89 cuts. Next, the board chief was yet again in the news for his suggestion of putting a ban on 28 ‘profane' words (in English and Hindi) in films. Be it Nihalani or leela Samson, who resigned after she and her team felt upset over the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal's decision to overturn the CBFC's decision to deny a certificate to MSG: The Messenger of God, the ‘censor board’ has always remained in the news for the wrong reasons. Where then lies the problemIJ At the crux of the matter, the decision is not that of an individual alone. It is a collective pronouncement made by a group of people. Essentially, the group too is under pressure to maintain status quo with regards to the archaic rules that do not comply with present-day thinking.

It is for this reason that the Information & Broadcasting Ministry had last year taken a progressive step to form a committee, headed by noted film director Shyam Benegal, to recommend steps for restructuring the body. Hopes were high that the panel, which consisted of renowned people from the film industry, would provide a holistic framework for the certification of films. On this front, the panel did not disappoint, as it advocated to limit the CBFC's role to only certifying films and categorising the suitability to audience groups on the basis of age and maturity. Many senior Ministers in the Cabinet too have voiced their opinion that the CBFC must not get into negotiations with film producers about what can be taken out or not taken out of a film. Some prominent film personalities, in the present case Prakash Jha, too have slammed the way the board functions and lamented the failure of the Government to overhaul this body. It is, perhaps, due to this reason that Nihalani has been at the receiving end. Meanwhile, some Muslim groups, who are bent on stalling the film, lipstick Under My Burkha, and have also threatened to ask the Union Government to put a ban on the controversial movie for hurting their community's religious sentiments, have been irrational in their demands as they have not yet seen the movie. They cannot oppose the movie for the sake of it. The Government will do well to go to the root of the problem: The CBFC must be trimmed of its censoring powers.