As if proving his credentials as a Modi bhakt with the song Har Har Modi, Ghar Ghar Modi weren't enough, Chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) Pahlaj Nihalaani is now saying no to anything he even remotely sees as anti-Modi. The latest to hit this block is a film by national award winner Kamal Swaroop, Battle for Banaras, which captures the Modi-Kejriwal electoral battle.
Inspired by Nobel Laureate Eleas Canetti's book, Crowds and Power, the documentary captures the excitement, madness and noise generated during the high-octane election battle in the holy city of Varanasi, PM Modi's parliamentary constituency, and in the process, lays bare the politics of the world's biggest democracy.
On being refused a censor certificate at both the exam committee and review committee, the filmmaker tried to meet Nihalani to ask if he wanted any cuts. "No cuts can justify a film like this, we were told," Swaroop told dna.
The filmmaker now plans to take it to the tribunal. "We are keeping our fingers crossed that our film is passed there. Just because the censor hasn't asked for any cuts while denying us a certificate, we are very worried," he said.
Shot in April 2014 and completed in August 2015, the film, which has already been selected to premiere at the Montreal Film Festival, is among India's biggest documentary films, shot over a span of 44 days on rich 4K format.
"Technically, this would be a first. I thought that India should get to watch films shot in this format but clearly the censor board thinks otherwise," Swaroop said.
While Nihalani did not respond to calls, other censor board members like Nandini Sardesai and Chandraprakash Dwivedi were livid. "This is now increasingly becoming a set pattern. Anything seen as remotely critical of the powers-that-be is immediately axed. This is wrong. I think filmmakers should just simply bypass the review committee and head straight to the tribunal every time this happens. That would probably send a message to the I&B ministry about the deep rot that has set in here," Sardesai said.
