Censors for big display of cut scenes at theatres

By Udumula Sudhakar Reddy

“Delete the visual of the thigh of the heroine”; “delete the cleavage of actor shown in close-up in the item song”; “delete the knife piercing the neck and blood dripping”…these are some of the most common cuts demanded by the Central Board of Film Certification for Tollywood films with “A”

and “U/A” certificates. Interestingly, the details of the deleted curse words and visuals mentioned

on the censor certificate, are supposed to be displayed in A4 size on the notice board of all theatres screening the film. CBFC members are now demanding that these details be displayed in a bigger size so that moviegoers can complain if they find that the scenes have not been deleted.

However, there is an argument that though the video and audio of cut scenes and curse words are not shown, this “notice” unnecessarily reveals the details of censored scenes and dialogues.

CBFC national board member Ms Jeevita Rajashekar said, “There is no mechanism to

enforce that censored scenes and dialogues are not screened. A mechanism has to be

developed. Before doing that at least the details have to displayed prominently so that people

can come forward and complain to CBFC or police or any agency. A toll-free number can be

set up for the same purpose. Except in multiplex theatres, children are not stopped by the

managements when they enter theatres screening ‘A’ films.” Sources in CBFC meanwhile said that the duty of the board ended with issuing certification as per rules and that it was the subject of the

Union government, whereas enforcement was the subject of the state government and local

police had to enforce it. “A cognizable case can be booked suo motu by the police even without

complaint if kids are allowed into ‘A’ certified films or if censored scenes are shown,” she

said.