Interview of the CEO of Censor Board:'Dad, isn't there too much l

chimchimcher-ee thumbnail
12th Anniversary Thumbnail Sparkler Thumbnail Engager Level 1 Thumbnail
Posted: 11 years ago
#1

It's time for a clean-up act

By Vickey LalwaniVickey Lalwani, Mumbai Mirror | Jan 16, 2014, 07.48 AM IST


It's time for a clean-up act
Left: Rakesh Kumar, CBFC CEO; A still from Yaariyan and Agneepath



RELATED

Newly appointed Censor Board CEO Rakesh Kumar says he is here keep a check on the growing vulgarity and violence.

CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) has a new CEO, Rakesh Kumar, an ex-employee in Indian Railways. In an exclusive chat with Mirror at his Cuffe Parade residence on Tuesday night, he talks about his plans to scissor the objectionable content. Excerpts:

What's the first thing on your agenda?

There is a huge backlog of films that needs to be cleared as we are short-staffed. I had a meet-ngreet with a set of leading filmmakers. I have to look into their request of allowing online submission of film trailers for approval. Also, Censor Chief, Leela Samson, has asked me to keep a check on the growing vulgarity and violence in films.

What's your take on today's films?

The seriousness in content is missing. Filmmakers are pushing the envelope a bit too far. They tell us, "Whatever we show is happening in our homes." But what is happening in their homes is not necessarily happening across the country. So it cannot be the yardstick. I seriously don't think Ranbir Kapoor should have shown his middle finger and bared his butt in Besharam. I also felt that given his reputation, Aamir Khan shouldn't have produced a cussloaded film like Delhi Belly(pauses).

Go on...

My wife and I walked out of Agneepath in the interval because it was just too gory. Gangs of Wasseypur had terrible language and Vishal Bhardwaj retained Arshad Warsi's sex scene in Dedh Ishqiya despite us ordering him to blur it out. It was only when we told him that we'd be forced to make a police complaint, did he edit it out.

After watching Shudh Desi Romance, my five-year-old daughter asked me, "Dad, isn't there too much love in this movie?" More recently, I went to see Yaariyan with her and came out visibly embarrassed. Now, I have decided not to see even a U/A film with my kid.

How do you plan to change things?

I called a meeting of my Regional Officers and have told them that I am not happy with the way certain things are going.

Are you in favour of removing 'No Smoking' disclaimer?

No, Anurag Kashyap has to follow the law of the land. He has challenged it in court but he is unlikely to win the case.

How will you make adult content suitable for TV viewing?

If you have content like Grand Masti, I wonder how much would remain after we clip.

But the film did well...

Then po*nography, which has a huge market in India, should be included in films to make them work better in the box-office.

Buzz is, CBFC has been lenient with influential filmmakers...

On the contrary, we have been lenient with low-budget filmakers. I was an observer at the Revising Committee. Kill The Rapist was cleared with an A certificate. I questioned if it should be given a certificate at all.

What's your view on the New Cinematograph Act?

It isn't radically different from the previous one, except that U-12 and U-15 code will be included in the theatres. But I doubt the extent of its implementation.

Do you think that CBFC is walking on a tightrope with every film having plenty of objectionable content?

The problem is that the objectionable content is getting passed. This is making the filmmakers more audacious. If we can nip this trend in the bud, the results will show up sooner or later. Else I will be out.

Have you met the former CEO Pankaja Thakur?

Yes, I met her at her Wadala residence. It is a norm to meet your predecessor before taking charge.

Why wasn't her stint not increased beyond three years?

Office politics was one of the reasons. She had come from Customs and maybe will go back.

Created

Last reply

Replies

22

Views

4.3k

Users

19

Likes

39

Frequent Posters

963651 thumbnail
Posted: 11 years ago
#2
Is he serious?
Time to bring back the sunflowers then 😆
nikitagmc thumbnail
16th Anniversary Thumbnail Sparkler Thumbnail + 3
Posted: 11 years ago
#3
Is he mad? Why did he show SDR to his 5 year old kid? Hadn't he seen the trailers or songs?
963651 thumbnail
Posted: 11 years ago
#4
Maybe he should hire Alok Nath ji for help
Babuji will give sanskars to the filmmakers 😆
MR.KooL thumbnail
14th Anniversary Thumbnail Achiever Thumbnail + 3
Posted: 11 years ago
#5

After watching Shudh Desi Romance, my five-year-old daughter asked me, "Dad, isn't there too much love in this movie?"


haha this made me laugh 😆 shuddh desi romance dekhke aise halat hain toh if his kids wud have watched Grand masti questions wud have been about Doodh ki factory and rockets 😆
anyways, looks like he got manager job of sanskaari national babuji 😆

Edited by MR.KooL - 11 years ago
Sophz thumbnail
11th Anniversary Thumbnail Voyager Thumbnail Engager Level 1 Thumbnail
Posted: 11 years ago
#6
Ugh this guy!


krystel21 thumbnail
13th Anniversary Thumbnail Sparkler Thumbnail + 5
Posted: 11 years ago
#7
Why would you take your 5 year old daughter with you to watch SDR in the first place, is something that beats me. 🤔
chimchimcher-ee thumbnail
12th Anniversary Thumbnail Sparkler Thumbnail Engager Level 1 Thumbnail
Posted: 11 years ago
#8
^ Well, he didn't say they watched it in a theater; how about they watched SDR on Sony TV?
chimchimcher-ee thumbnail
12th Anniversary Thumbnail Sparkler Thumbnail Engager Level 1 Thumbnail
Posted: 11 years ago
#9

Why new Censor Board CEO Rakesh Kumar is bad news for Indian cinema

23 mins ago

#CBFC #Censor Board #OnOurMind #Rakesh Kumar

Print

A little less than two years ago, Pankaja Thakur, whose reign as CEO of the Central Board of Film Certification just ended this week, was in the eye of a controversy. The CBFC had demanded over 59 cuts in the Vidya Balan-starrer The Dirty Picture when it was to be aired on television and Thakur was being lambasted by industry members, including the likes of Ramesh Sippy and Mahesh Bhatt, for regressive behaviour. Nevertheless, by the end of the meeting, a solution was reached that at least mollified the aggrieved producers of the film.

I met her after that meeting and as we sat down for our chat, she said the CBFC was actively looking at moving forward with the times. "I got flooded with dozens of angry letters complaining about why we passed a film like Delhi Belly (2011)," she said to me, "but I'm glad we did it."

A screengrab of CBFC website.

This is a statement that is diametrically opposite to what her successor Rakesh Kumar was quoted as saying in today's Mumbai Mirror . I quote: "I also felt that given his reputation, Aamir Khan shouldn't have produced a cussloaded (sic) film like Delhi Belly."

This is irony to the power of disaster in a fortnight that can boast of film releases like Dedh Ishqiya (which Mr Kumar has also expressed his disapproval for), Miss Lovely (a film on Bombay's C-grade film world that has already been through CBFC hell to reach theatres) and Om Dar B Dar, a postmodernist classic with abstract and decidedly adult' themes.

How did we get here? The biggest reason is probably the bureaucratic nature of CBFC appointments, which is the only explanation for why Kumar, a former Indian Railways employee, has now been given the job of deciding what content is suitable for Indian audiences. The same system also brought in Thakur, a former Customs officer, who did try to some extent to make CBFC change with the times. So what is it about Kumar that makes him bad news for Indian cinephiles and filmmakers? Take a look at what he has to say about contemporary Indian cinema.

1) "The seriousness in content is missing. Filmmakers are pushing the envelope too far."

If Oxford or Merriam-Webster ever need an example of the word contradiction', they should probably use a screenshot of the statement above. What exactly does this baffling statement mean? You want serious content that won't be challenging? And what is "pushing the envelope too far"? How far is "too far"?

2) His sensibilities seem to be defined by his wife and his daughter.

Kumar and his wife walked out of Agneepath because they felt it was too gory. His five-year-old daughter complained that Shuddh Desi Romance had "too much love." He was embarrassed after watching Yaariyan with his daughter, although presumably not because it was a terrible piece of cinema masquerading as entertainment'. Everyone who voted for Kumar's wife and daughter as representatives of Indian audiences, raise your hand now. Also, how many of you are uncomfortable with a guy who takes a five-year-old to a film clearly rated U/A judging a film? As The Vigil Idiot creator Sahil Rizwan pointed out on, Kumar doesn't seem to be exercising the kind of discretion he should be enforcing.

In any case, why are Kumar's family members interfering in his professional decision making when they are not, as far as I know, members of CBFC? Is the Censor Board chief drawing a salary (out of the taxpayers' money) so he can consult his family for decisions that he - a fully-grown, rational adult - should be taking on his own?

On a slightly separate note, is "too much love" a problem that must be fixed?

3) "Gangs of Wasseypur had terrible language and Vishal Bhardwaj retained Arshad Warsi's sex scene in Dedh Ishqiya despite us ordering him to blur it out."

That one sentence contains two depressing indicators of the kind of censorship we're likely to see in Kumar's reign. If Kumar has watched Gangs Of Wasseypur, he should know that it is a violent film that presents many terrible things on screen, for that is the story the film is telling. Kumar's job is to determine whether the language used was justified considering the scope and setting of the film. He is not supposed to apply his subjective value judgement to it. For example, if I find the act of Eklavya cutting off his own thumb to be presented as guru-dakshina to Dronacharya terrible' because it's a casteist, unfair and violent episide, am I justified in asking that future film and TV adaptations Mahabharata lose that story?

The second is the usage of the words "...despite us ordering him to blur it out." Contrary to what is suggested by Kumar using the word "order", CBFC is not the controlling authority of all Indian cinema. It's a body that's supposed to work with filmmakers, not issue diktats to them.

4) "No, Anurag Kashyap has to follow the law of the land."

This is in response to Kashyap's famous stand against the ridiculous anti-smoking disclaimers that appear on screen during the film. A number of people from the industry have backed him on this, calling it a blight on aesthetics and ultimately futile. This is reminiscent of The Dirty Picture dispute I mentioned earlier, when industry folk were called for a meeting so that both parties could reach a mutually-acceptable solution.

Clearly, this isn't Kumar's style. Why attempt to have a dialogue when you can just cite one of the laws of this land - a land most of us know to have several unfair and outdated laws in most spheres of life - and shut out the likes of Kashyap?

5) "The problem is that the objectionable content is getting passed. This is making the filmmakers more audacious. If we can nip this trend in the bud, the results will show up sooner or later."

And this from a man who is apparently bemoaning the short supply of serious cinema in India. Let's do an experiment with the above quote.

Step 1: Replace "objectionable content" with a minority community. Replace "is getting passed" with "are getting stronger/growing bigger/getting more power".

Step 2: Do some googling and compare with statements made by Hitler, Stalin, VHP leaders, RSS chiefs and fatwa-issuing maulvis.

Notice any patterns?

-GlitterVomit- thumbnail
11th Anniversary Thumbnail Navigator Thumbnail
Posted: 11 years ago
#10


Now we just need a time machine to bring this dude back to the era of dancing around trees and disco balls
Edited by -mist-angel- - 11 years ago

Related Topics

Bollywood Thumbnail

Posted by: priya185

6 months ago

Deepika for the CEO magazine

Deepika for the CEO magazine https://www.instagram.com/p/DGgRNcDsv0q/?igsh=MWRscGZteHljeWYxMw==

https://www.instagram.com/p/DGgRNcDsv0q/?igsh=MWRscGZteHljeWYxMw==
Expand ▼
Bollywood Thumbnail

Posted by: priya185

2 months ago

Lara Dutta’s Dad passes away

Lara Dutta’s Dad passes away...

Expand ▼
Bollywood Thumbnail

Posted by: khan.baba

20 days ago

Sonu Nigam ji took my name in interview

at 3:00 https://www.facebook.com/arsalan.khan.729238/videos/1093934442673128

https://www.facebook.com/arsalan.khan.729238/videos/1093934442673128
Expand ▼
Bollywood Thumbnail

Posted by: rckRadhe

25 days ago

Tara Sutaria: The Great Interview ✨

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCWqPyQAwqE Tara reveals a different side on TRS! ❤

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCWqPyQAwqE
Expand ▼
Bollywood Thumbnail

Posted by: priya185

25 days ago

Ibrahim Ali Khan new interview Elle

Ibrahim Ali Khan new interview Elle https://www.instagram.com/reel/DM4icXqx5wn/?igsh=amozZm13NTBhOXQy

Expand ▼
Top

Stay Connected with IndiaForums!

Be the first to know about the latest news, updates, and exclusive content.

Add to Home Screen!

Install this web app on your iPhone for the best experience. It's easy, just tap and then "Add to Home Screen".