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.