A for ADULTS ONLY

The fight between the censor board and film producers will perhaps never end. The censor board does keep changing its rules to be at tandem with the changing social trends. Still they can never keep up with the producers who are always a step ahead. Nudity is not the only criteria for a film to get an ‘A’ certificate but most people perceive it to be so and this post would consider only this aspect of censoring.

Mukesh Bhatt, the producer of Raaz – the mystery continues, is at war with the censor board over a nude scene done by Kangana Ranaut in a bath tub. The Censor Board has objected that with the scene included, the film won’t get a ‘U/A’ certificate as it would not be suitable for minors to watch it. The producer doesn’t want an ‘A’ certificate as it would limit their audience. I wonder at the naivety of the reporters who reported this piece of news. Most of the Bhatt films which are hits get ‘A’ certificate only. Be it Raaz, Murder or the recently released Jannat. Why would they fuss around this time?

Bhatts are smart filmmakers. They make low budget films with low key actors and a good music director. No matter how their films turn out, the music is always chartbusters. Good music does tremendous amount of marketing in itself. But for Raaz II only one song has climbed the chart, so they need to publicize the film somehow and they don’t have enough marketing budget to carry on. Controversies are always good for publicity and industry has been doing it for ages. Hence the current gimmick. Kangana’s nude scene will create enough curiosity among the sex starved Indians, including the author, to go for the film.

I won’t go to the debate of whether a piece of art needs censorship. But what I want to say is that censorship doesn’t serve its purpose. I was 14, four years below adulthood when I saw my first adult film. Six months later, I saw my first porn film. And all of my friends saw adult films before they turned into one. Now with mobile phones, it has become worse. One can access to adult material without much effort. Moreover I never saw in my life that a person was barred from entering into a cinema. So when it doesn’t serve any purpose why do we have censorship at all?

The late Vijay Anand resigned from the post of Censor board chief because he wanted to have separate theatres for porn films as it happens in a lot of western countries. I’m not quite in favor pornography. They can’t hold my interest for more than 5 mins. But I would love to see erotica on big screen. Indian society and screen is opening up but it will still take a generation for our stars to do an Original Sin.