Mehul S Thakkar (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 23, 2014)

Newly appointed Censor Board CEO, Rakesh Kumar, recently gave an interview to Mirror venting against the vulgarity and violence in recent Hindi films passed with a U or U/A certificate.

Now Hansal Mehta has taken up the rant alleging that his film Shahid, a biopic on slain human rights activist Shahid Azmi, got ‘unfair’ cuts and an A certificate, while films like Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-leela and Madras Cafe were treated with more lenience.

 Hansal, who filed an RTI seeking information about the censorship process which led to the two films getting passed with a U/A certificate despite the sexual content and raw violence, is planning to make a habit of it.

Yes, the filmmaker has hit upon a novel plan to keep the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) on its toes. "I will watch every film from now on and if I feel that it contains any objectionable content I will promptly file an RTI application demanding information from the Censors," he says.

Pointing out that Shahid's business was jeopardised because of CBFC’s 'A' certificate, he says, "I have nothing against the other movies of the filmakers but I am upset about the discrimination against my film. They couldn’t mess with a Sanjay Leela Bhansali or a Viacom18 but they can mess with someone who is less powerful like me. My earlier films too were ruthlessly censored,” he groused.

“RTI is a very efficient mechanism. Earlier we did not have access to the government files but now we do. It only takes Rs 10 to file an RTI application. We live in a democracy, no one can stop me,” said the filmmaker.