Battle with the censor board

Recently item girl Rakhi Sawant and hip-hop singer Ishq Bector got a clearance for the word kameeni used in their music video Bhoot, but after a two-month struggle. When the word was asked to be cut, Bector sent a legal notice to the Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC) in February alleging them of a biased verdict.

The board then asked him to send a letter to the revising committee where the word was reviewed and finally cleared on March 30.

He claims that independent artistes like him suffer because of the bias of the Board. “This is not the first time the Censor Board has shown this sort of bias, reflecting double standards. They did it with my video of Aye Hip Hopper too,” says Bector. “They suggest frivolous cuts almost every time I send a video for clearance.

Justice has prevailed this time, but I will not hesitate to take legal action again, if they unnecessarily trouble me in future,” he adds.
Vinayak Azad, regional officer, CBFC, counters, “These kind of things happen all the time. It is nothing new. Our censorship depends on the context of a word or a line being used. We have to keep the societal, cast, community and vulgarity issues in mind,” he says, adding, “Since it’s a creative ambit, most of the writers and directors feel that we are trying to mess around with their freedom of expression. But we reason it out with them.”

Film-maker Dibakar Banerjee agrees the Board is helpful. He says, “The Board becomes relevant in a society like ours with heightened social and political aggression. I don’t think I would attack the Board for changing one word in my song.” The Board had suggested some changes in the lyrics of a song in his movie
Love Sex aur Dhoka. He adds, “Some of the best Russian films were made under the Soviet communist government. Those films were some of the best works of criticism. We as film-makers need to find a way around the system to make our point. Our Board is quite lenient in that sense.”

Lyricist Javed Akhtar says that lyricists should respect public sentiment more than anything else. “Words like nanga has been used earlier in a song called Dekh Tere Insaan Ki Halat Kya Ho Gayi Bhagwan and so has the word kaminey. So it’s not just about a word, but the context in which it has been used that determines whether it’s vulgar or not. Whether there should be censorship on lyrics or not is a completely different matter. Public sentiment though has to be kept in mind,” he ends.