Filmmaker Onir says the cuts he’s been asked to make on his social drama Chauranga by the cesor board are illogical.
Produced by Onir and Sanjay Suri, Chauranga is the story of a young boy who faces a death sentence for writing a love letter to a girl from a higher caste in a traditional Indian village.
The board has asked Onir to edit a sex scene between Suri and Tannishtha Chatterjee, and another scene involving a Dalit boy being pushed into a well.
“It feels sad when I see a film like this with social significance running into trouble with the censors. It has been appreciated at many festivals and the scenes are not there for titillation and not graphic at all,” he said.
“And then you see much more regressive stuff getting away in the name of entertainment. I think that is very unfair,” he rued.
The film, directed by Bikas Ranjan Mishra, is based on the story of a Brahmin zamindar [landlord] in Jharkhand.
The My Brother Nikhil filmmaker says he does not understand the “logic” behind the censor cuts.
“They have asked to edit parts of the scenes. remove long shot from one, close up from another. It is like you are showing a pilot sitting in the cockpit about to fly the plane, but you are asked not to show the take-off,” he said.
“It is weird because the film deals with caste atrocities. We are not encouraging that, it is not even violent. I don’t understand the logic behind this,” he said.
