As the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) continues to face the ire of society for its extreme censorship policies, filmmaker Sudhir Mishra says censorship in India was always a problem, adding that one must fight such diktats.
“Censorship in India was always a bit of a problem. We will have to fight and one way is that you have to keep making the films that you want to,” Mishra said on the sidelines of the Film Bazaar in Panaji.
The most recent issue to make headlines was when a kissing scene from the James Bond film Spectre was cut short by the censor. The virtual world was brimming with trolls and memes going by the hashtag -- #SanskariJamesBond.
Mishra of Chameli and Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi fame asserted that such steps may force established international directors to skip Indian releases of their films.
“In [the] old days we used to have complaints that they allow this in foreign film and they don’t allow it in Indian films. Some of the serious filmmakers of the west will not allow the film to be released with any cuts like Steven Spielberg or Woody Allen,” Mishra said.
“I guess the James Bond film is a producer’s film, so they might accept, but the films that are made with vision of director or writer intact, they will not allow it,” he said.
The director, who is working on the movie Dasdev, feels such censorship is the result of “overzealous attitude of some people and is not valid”.
