CBFC TELL ME WHY DIFFERENT STANDARDS FOR DIFFERENT FILMS?

 

I was watching #Jailer a super-hit film that was certified U/A by CBFC on Amazon Prime. What caught my attention was scenes after scenes where the #Hero was either beheading a person or chopping their ears off. The number of times people were murdered in multiple ways which was practically glorified as it was the hero who was indulging in the same, made it almost a normal affair in the entire film. 

Now why did this catch my attention and why was I bothered so much?

A few weeks back I was personally running around to get my Hindi feature film #DahiniTheWitch certified by CBFC. The committee with an officer from CBFC was singularly objecting to a scene where a #Mob was beheading a woman. The entire film by the way is on witch-hunting and is a social thriller based on true events of women being branded as witches and a vigilante mob chasing them to kill them. The film is a heroic tale of this woman who fights back and survives that experience. The director of the film who had accompanied me for the CBFC screening was trying to reason out with the committee the importance of that scene. Perhaps his method of persuasion meant he gave examples of other films where scenes of crime most probably irrelevant to the story were shown without even a cut. We were repeatedly told not to compare our film with other films. Which made me wonder, is there are  different sets of rules that apply for different films?

This difference I felt from the time I received a call from the CBFC office for the screening. It was 7pm in the evening when I was informed that our screening would be next day at 11am. When I told the person that we are coming from another city the gentleman was gracious enough to change the time to 3pm. But one question rankled me ‘who is your agent’? The response I received when I told we do not have any agent, left an uncomfortable feeling within me. For a moment I wondered whether there were Government authorized agents that I was supposed to route my film? I checked the website there was no such thing. So, who is this agent…this thought lingered in my mind? 

Next day when we reached for the screening, the gentleman who had called me the previous night told me that the application we had filed online was not complete. I told him that we are happy to rectify the same if he can point out what is the mistake (to my knowledge there were no mistakes, but who knows what these guys can point out). He asked me to come to his office. When I reached the office, there was one more gentleman standing there perhaps a superior officer. After looking at me for a while he told me they have condoned the mistake and there was a pause. By this time my intellectual looking director also entered the room. There was an uncomfortable silence. After a while they asked us to leave. Something unsaid was in the air…we let it be. 

We then had to go to the technician with our #DCP for the screening. Again, both the technicians asked the same question ‘who is your agent?’ When our response was in negative, there was again an uncomfortable silence. Then the technician took our #DCP and very quickly declared that it does not work. Luckily for us, my director had kept multiple versions ready. So, he gave another #DCP in another format which worked. We had two more hours before the screening took place. So, we sat in the lobby for our turn. I then received a call from the technician asking me to come alone to their projection room. Prime facie it was to tell me the importance of the receipt they were issuing for the screening fees of Rs 11,000/ and then he asked me why I have not kept an agent!

By this time, this repeated question was irking me and I told them that we chose to do this ourselves and avoided an agent as we do not have any budget for the same and asked why is that bothering everyone so much?  To that the technician responded that if we had kept an agent an amount would be paid to complete this certification which would also include the amounts that had to be given to everybody at #CBFC!

So, I asked him what will happen now, since I am not going to be paying any amount to anybody and I was told everything will take its own course. And everything thereafter did take its own sweet time!  

During the censor screening, when the Committee told us to mute the cuss words of the mob or reduce the impact of the single beheading scene by 40%, it was not very surprising that they were not ready to listen to any of our arguments or anything that we had to say. The fact that it is a vigilante mob with blood in their eyes who are using the cuss words just went above their heads. A sarcastic dialogue mentioning the names of few gods also caught their wise attention which was also something they wanted to be removed. We ended up with four cuts and an ‘A’ certificate.

The next one month saw the entire process being delayed by constant cherry-picking real and imaginary mistakes. One officer who was playing the ‘good cop’ was definitely in touch and kept asking us to revise multiple times including changing the font size of the letter! I even had to give a declaration that I have enough validation that the film is inspired by true events. After exhausting all possible errors finally one fine day, the online message said that I have to upload the script. I promptly did so. 

Now the good cop, who was perhaps not always sitting online did not know that such a message had come. So, he sent me a message many hours later on Whatsapp asking me to upload the final script. I told him that was already done & the message online was that the script was approved and I had to bring the CD for sealing. Well, if he had any more corrections up to his sleeve the chance was over for good now.  

 

Now I wonder, whether not having an agent is the reason for us getting a ‘A’ certificate and also delaying it for weeks together? Our film in question is a social thriller whose message is to not only to denounce witch-hunting but also those who inflict violence in any form. This message gets an ‘A’ certificate and a film that glorifies violence as the main protagonist indulges in the same throughout the film gets a U/A! What is the purpose of certification? 

Would I have got a U/A certificate if I had an agent and all the payments meant for the #CBFC officers was done?  

The Government in good faith brings systems such as online application and online payment to nip corruption at the root but institutions whose DNA is fed on bribery will always find better ways to sustain their greed.

When we talk about CBFC, this kind of double standards has become the reason for useful content made with constrained budgets never reaching a larger audience. 

         

  

         

 

   

Is a woman’s body a pawn in your hand?

  

On 19^th July,2023 a shocking video of a mob watching a woman being raped and another woman being paraded naked surfaced on social media. I was stunned and outraged. Quickly my numbness  wore off and I started reacting. Tweets after tweets tagging the head of nation, ministers concerned, all statutory bodies was a small way to vent my anger.

And then slowly as nation-wide reactions flooded the social media and the leaders concerned  were compelled to break their silence questions started nudging me.

This incident happened in the first week of May and the FIR was lodged on 18^th May,2023. Not very clear whether the case was reported immediately or there was a delay. But definitely the video was recorded on the day of the crime. Who made this video?  In whose possession was the video for so many weeks? Was the timing to release/leak the video have a political motive? 

No matter what the motive is, the fact is two women were publicly molested and humiliated and one of them raped while a mob watched. A statement of one of the victim indicates police presence when all this was happening. The fact also is police did not make a single arrest till 20^th July until a national outrage compelled them to do so and one of them was arrested.

 

It also fills me with deep anger that the Chief Minister of the state concerned behaves as if this is a sudden news for him especially when more than 2 months have already passed after the incident. How does a Chief Minister not even know about such a huge mob violence in his own state? Is it an intelligence failure? Is it a break-down of the entire law and order system in the state? Or is it a calculated inaction? And how many more such instances have happened in that state in the last three months? 

Then I look around on the larger happenings around the country based on what is happening on social media.  The video is the focal point of all discussions, reading between lines one wonders are these people really concerned about the victims or is this a weapon to hit back at their political opponents.

Simultaneously, the other side is now finally speaking. All statements being made to show stringent action is being taken. Why were all them silent for so many months when the state was burning and a large number of women and children were pushed into relief camps?

Who benefits from this silence? Who is benefitting with infight between communities?

While political silence is deafening, the silence of the media all these months is also frightening. Where are the investigative journalists? Where is third pillar of democracy? How come they did not come to know of such a dastardly public act? Who is playing safe and for what purpose? 

But the most pathetic of all is how depraved is humanity! There are those among us who watch in silence when women are raped right in front of their eyes…there are million others who will not only record this but will also disseminate it again & again. Can we face our own self in the mirror?  

Ironically for me, eight years back I had started a campaign against rape and gang rape videos being circulated and for the last few years we are fighting an ongoing battle in the Supreme Court to make social media platforms accountable for the content on their platforms and today a viral  rape video is the reason for the nation coming to know about atrocities in a state where internet has been shut down for the last three months, a viral video becoming the reason for all silences being broken including that of the Apex Court. And I wonder, have we moved even an inch from 2015? Rape videos continue to be made with impunity and rapists rest with ease confident never to be caught. 

 

At the end of the day, one question lingers in my mind? Is women’s safety a priority for any political leader? Or is it a weapon to be used to gain brownie points in an election? Is woman’s body, her honour, her dignity just a political pawn for anybody and everybody to throw around. 

A belief system I always carried is when an elected leader is given a responsible position within the government he or she should cease to be from a caste, creed or religion and even a political party. This person’s identity should be only as an ‘Indian’ and nothing more. He/she represents India, is a voice of all Indians in all its diversity. In fact I am also of the belief that such persons should not be allowed to campaign for any elections. Afterall if they are in power they already have the opportunity to demonstrate all their good work so what is the need for further branding.  

 

When a state burns and mobs with impunity rape and humiliate women in public it means to me a massive failure of political leadership.  When a woman’s body is used as a weapon of war it means that elected leaders have failed in their responsibility to safeguard the interests of all and a woman is being a made a pawn in this power war. 

 

This is not acceptable…this will not be tolerated.  

 

And finally, although not the right way to do it but the ‘video’ has made its point… now it is important to remember every time it is  re-posted and shared somewhere out there two young women are revictimized again and again. 

We failed in protecting them…at least let us not be party to retraumatising them.    

 

 

              

A LEADER WHO TOUCHED MY SOUL-A TRIBUTE TO OOMMEN CHANDY SIR

 

From the time I got into the domain of social activism many of my friends and relatives have asked me whether I would join electoral politics. To their disappointment my answer has been always negative for I have somehow built a strong reservation about political leaders. How I developed it…or where it came from, I have no clue. But politics and all that it represents is something that I have carefully avoided. Perhaps it is for the same reason that I mindfully kept away from cultivating any relationship with any political leader. On, their part since I do not make any business sense in terms of ‘vote bank’ they have also maintained their distance. 

 

So, it was a pleasant surprise for me when my good friend Shafi Mather whom I had met in the TED Conference in 2009 called me and told me to come urgently to Kerala to make a presentation on human trafficking before the Honorable Chief Minister. This was in 2011. 

I rushed to Kerala not knowing what to expect. With a minimum of fuss, I was conducted to the CM’s chamber and I saw that a projector and screen was arranged at one end. It was a temporary arrangement. The first time I saw Shri Oommen Chandy the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Kerala I was blown away. His twinkling smile captivated me and what happened next humbled me to no end. OC Sir as I went on to call him in the later years was in a meeting. He excused himself from the meeting, came towards me, wished me and courteously seated me on the sofa profusely apologizing about a few minutes delay as he had to sort out some urgent matter.

The only face of OC Sir that I saw 

I was an absolute ‘nobody’, I had not even got my civilian honor then. But here was a man who was honoring me with great respect just based on what he had heard from a trusted aide. When I made my presentation a little while later, I could see tears in the corner of his eyes several times. The first meeting ended with OC Sir assuring me to do something concrete. While there were no great promises made or pledges taken, I left OC Sir’s chamber with a great sense of contentment of meeting somebody whose grace left me both at ease and at the same time speechless. 

 

When somebody asked me what was the outcome of the meeting with CM I simply said ‘time will tell’. And definitely time did tell the amazing level of commitment OC Sir had about safety of women and children and his extraordinary ability to bring diverse personalities together. When the committee was constituted a few months later to draft a policy he made sure at every step even in the constitution of the committee I was in the loop. Perhaps it was that unconditional faith and respect that made me put my heart and soul to draft the ‘Nirbhaya Policy’. During this course I had several opportunities to meet him and brief him about the progress of the committee and every time I would be left with these confused feelings on how much is this one individual taking up on his shoulders. There was always a crowd in his chambers. He would speak to each one of them. One day I even heard him talking to an Inspector questioning why an FIR was not lodged and in my petty mind it was why is he micro-managing? It took me years to understand what OC Sir was to his people and how his whole life revolved around making every hope and aspiration real for his people.

 

Over the years I was also recipient of his personal care and concern. When I faced backlash for some of my work in Hyderabad, he was perhaps the only one who called up the then Chief Minister and requested to ensure safety for my life. And this he did without me even telling him anything about what I am going through or even requesting for any support. That was OC Sir, a person whom you can rely in the worst of your times without even asking.

When in 2013 I produced my Malayalam feature film on sex trafficking ‘Ente’ I had requested him to come for the premiere. He not only came but he brought the entire assembly with him for he felt every legislator should be sensitized on this subject. This was the first film OC Sir was seeing in 45 years! For the next few months, he would constantly remember the last scene of the film and tell me that it left a deep sense of guilt about how the efforts to ensure safety for women and children were rather inadequate. 

 

Every time OC Sir felt my expertise would be of any help, he immediately called upon me. Never once did he make me feel like an outsider, valuing me for the body of work that I have accomplished and according me the respect I deserve and more. To me those days Cliff House was a comfortable place to quickly update Sir on the various developments related to the implementation of the policy before I rushed back to take the flight back to Hyderabad. 

 

We lost touch after the new ruling party got elected. Our paths crossed once or twice mostly at Cochin Airport. Both the times it was like connecting with a beloved friend eagerly sharing our thoughts on what more can be done. 

 

My ears were tuned to OC Sir and his activities. I watched him handle all the challenges of public life with grace and dignity. With every passing day I realized the need for a political leader like OC Sir who had the capacity to be fair and neutral, had the ability to bring together diverse people, felt deeply for the pain and anxiety of every commoner and had the moral compass of conscience highly embedded in his soul. Today more than ever the country needs such a leader to navigate us through these troubling times.     

 

This morning when I heard OC Sir passed away…for a few minutes I was numb, I could sense deep vacuum, is this the end of an era? No words adequate to pay the right tribute…no thoughts tall enough to capture this brilliant statesman, no gesture big enough to give back what he gave us.

OC Sir…Om Shanti! Till we meet again…        

 

Sunitha Krishnan    

 

     

        

 

      

    

THE POLITICS OF GIVING

 

Last week two students claiming to be from IIT just landed at our office wanting to complete a college project on human trafficking. Among other things they also wanted to interact with survivors. While our team explained to them our protocols and send them back, what continues to surprise me is the sense of entitlement somepeople have when they come to a civil society organization and how offended they are when they are told that there are protocols that have to be followed. 

This makes me reflect on how we view social work and those who have committed their lives to social change. A small but significant number in India who make financial donations believe that the beneficiary organization should feel extremely grateful for the support given, provide enough publicity and branding for receiving help and should also be beholden forever. This group of people in their overwhelming generosity conveniently forget that the organization that has taken the initiative to change that specific problem in the society is doing it on their behalf and that if anybody has to be grateful it should be the other way around.

This takes me to the next point on how a significant number of people view shelter homes. First of all, only a human being who is in difficult circumstances will land up in a shelter home whether it is for long or short duration. No doubt this person feels the need to belong, of being cared for and the assurance that not everybody in the world will cause harm. But does this person need to feel like a beggar dependent on the benevolence of others? 

Mindful ‘giving’ is an alien concept to most givers. Many don’t even bother to seek information on what does the home require? It is like, I have to distribute food and fruits and I will just do that or I have to cut my birthday cake here and I will just do that. Maybe some of the logic for such acts is that the donor wants to be 100% sure what is given is going straight into the stomach of the beneficiary. The fear that cash given might be swindled by the organization might also be a reason for such actions. 

No doubt such fears stem from repeated scandals that take place in the garb of running shelters but that is where each one of us are duty bound to make our own due diligence before we extend our support. 

But this problem is not so one-sided as it is also a fact that many donors would use such homes to clear their black money to get rid of their guilt. Loose cash given is always a breeding ground for corrupt practices as the organization will be unable to show this amount in their books of accounts and temptations will lead to corrupt practices as unaccounted amount does not fall into the accountability framework. 

While corruption is rampant everywhere and social organizations are no exception but unethical practices in the social sector can be easily curbed if we make social work more about dignity and justice rather than altruism. 

In the West, volunteering for social work is about being accountable for the privileges you enjoy. The value system is ingrained through the schooling system and becomes more and more tangible as you go higher in the ladder of education. Working for a cause through a civil society organization increases your credit score. Taking a break from formal education and getting educated in the university of life by deeply engaging in a social cause even far away from home adds value to your future life perhaps even your career prospects. Employee Giving is matched robustly by the Employer. It is an eco-system that nurtures the giving side as a ‘duty’ and not as a ‘dole’! 

 

In India you see some traces of such ‘duty’ in spiritual efforts that has a component of social work. The journey of salvation by serving others is a spiritual quest. This path is taken by many which ensures devotional dedication is translated to serving those in need.  The scale and magnitude of dedicated volunteers using this method is perhaps humungous and sustainability of such methods is also 100% as there is a perceived sense of being in a win-win zone. The volunteer needs spiritual gratification and the organization wants to address a specific social concern.  Both gain, there is no giver or taker!  This business model which has worked for spiritual leaders has not extended to other civil society organizations who take up a social problem to change without any other baggage.  

Bringing professionalism in social work has brought in good governance, transparency and accountability. Today social work has broadened its scope as development work and has also become a viable career option going beyond volunteering, but the fact remains that it is largely dependent on giving/grants/donations. This dependency is largely because the social sector is ‘not for profit’ and fills the gaps in state interventions for social/community transformation. In several areas, the social sector takes up those issues and provides services that the state does not find it as a priority.

While the social sector is not monolithic and the organizations big and small have their own versions of financial sustainability for their teams but what is universal about the sector is that each one involved wants to change somebody else’s life positively. The method, strategy and scale might be different. But the core concern that it is predominantly dependent on grants and donations means it executes all the attitude and perceptions that a ‘giver’ carries. 

 

If the ‘giver’ suffers from a ‘savior syndrome’ then all that follows which includes the method, the process and the execution is tailor made to satisfy that end. 

If the ‘giver’ recognizes the social problems around and acknowledges that he/she is unable to respond due to various commitments and liabilities and seeks to find people who are trying to change that social scenario and shares his/her own financial privileges to contribute to that change then it will automatically change the way the doer is executing the efforts on the ground. 

If the ‘giver’ is seeking spiritual gratification and believes all his/her resources including material and human has to be committed to bring certain social change and that is the only way to enrich their soul then the way the person engages with the organization also changes as they believe it is in their personal best interest. 

It is rare to find a sense of autonomy among the ‘dependent class’. These rare few gain their confidence from efforts that they have put on ground and the exposure they have to a wide range of givers which secures them with an understanding that there are significant number who genuinely want to change the existing anomalies in the society but are unable to physically commit to taking initiative and are willing to share what they have so that efforts to bring change remains unabated. These ‘rare few’ are constantly in search of these kind of givers and are able to build not only certain ethical standards in execution of work but also draw the lines on anything that may infringe either the dignity or social justice for those who are served. 

Social change is an immense responsibility, social change agents have the enormous job of finding ways to cope with resistance, hostility, rejection, apathy and insecurity which is intrinsic to the vocation they have chosen; the larger world of givers, sympathizers, facilitators and moderators at the least should build an eco-system where change agents can function without ethical compromise.