Censor board denied clearance to 256 films in 10 years

Lucknow, Feb 9 (IANS) The Censor Board denied certification for release to 256 films in the past 12 years, an RTI query has revealed.

In response to a Right to Information (RTI) filed by activists Amitabh and Nutan Thakur, it has been revealed that between 2001 to 2011, 256 films were denied certification by the Censor Board.

The maximum number of films denied certification in a year was 59 in 2006, followed by 33 in 2002 and 31 in 2004. Nine films were denied certification in 2010. In 2001, all the 19 films denied certificate were in English.

Seventy-eight Hindi films and 52 English films were banned by the board.

Among South Indian films, 51 Tamil, 33 Kannada, 15 Telugu and 14 Malayalam films were denied certification in this period, while five Marathi films were also not cleared for release.

Most of these films had sexually explicit material.