Film Censorship In India

“Censorship is when a work of art expressing an idea which does not fall under current convention is seized, cut up, withdrawn, impounded, ignored, maligned, or otherwise made inaccessible to its audience.” — Ritu Menon, for Women’s World Organisation for Rights, Literature, and Development

Censorship is a global phenomenon. In recent times, there has been repeated news of something getting banned somewhere in the world for reasons that seem unreasonable to many while a necessity to the rest. In India, specially, censorship exists in media industry. Each country and each culture censors the media in one way or the other. Government across the globe have used several religious arguments

The Board often orders, directors to remove anything it feels offensive. The censorship of films is governed by the Cinematograph Act, 1952. It assigns certification as Universal, Adults, and Parental Guidance to films in India before public exhibition. Film censorship is common today, but the first time a movie went through censorship because of politics and the law was in 1921. Bhakta Vidur was banned in Chennai and Karachi at its release during the imposition of the Rowlatt Act that put restrictions on Indian imports. Today most critical job is of censor board towards violence and sex. It has to control corruption of mind and to top pornographic films. But to the irony of censor board is ‘Internet’ where just by writing a word sex you can go to any porn site whereas censor board has long panel discussion for 3 second kiss scene in a movie. I don’t say to legalize pornography but the government has to realize the importance of freedom of speech and expression. Movies like Gangs of Wasseypur, Gandu (‘Arsehole’), The Dirty Picture, Miss Lovely and many more are getting international recognition but at the same time are criticized in