The film industry clearly wants the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chief Pahlaj Nihalani to be shown the door and instead, appoint a “progressive, positive and responsible“ person to chair the Board. “He has been interfering and creating lot of problems in the CBFC functioning. He is behaving in a very dictatorial and regressive manner. We want a more evolved and understanding person.We want him to be replaced,“ said Mukesh Bhatt. On Monday evening, a closed door meeting was held between the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and top film personalities. When we called Nihalani for his comments on this meeting, he said, “I am unwell, and resting, so I don't know anything about it; talk to the CBFC CEO.“

After Monday's meeting, Rathore felt that the film fraternity is feeling reassured. He also reiterated that there is no 'ban' on cuss words, which was apparently implemented by the CBFC chief without consulting the Board members. He said, “We don't believe in censorship, it is a certification board. Only limited things, which the Board feels are out of context in a film, could perhaps be censored. There can be no template that can be applied to films.“

However, the damage has already been done to few recent releases that suffered a series of cuts because of unofficial orders. Anushka Sharma - one of the producers of a recently released film, NH10, who had to bear the brunt of certain rules imposed 'arbitrarily' - was apparently vehement in protesting the government's 'unfortunate' choice of chairperson in the meeting that was attended by Gulzar, Shabana Azmi, Aamir Khan, Anurag Kashyap, Karan Johar, Ekta Kapoor, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Vishal Bhardwaj, Sudhir Mishra, Ritesh Sidhwani, Riteish Deshmukh, Vidya Balan, Deepika Padukone, Mukesh Bhatt and many others.

The CBFC members have pointed out to Nihalani and Board officials that they only have recommendatory powers. “A ban has no place in any democratic society. We would not like to use words like 'censor', 'ban' or 'cut'. CBFC's responsibility is to classify a film and not censor it.“ The minister also had a meeting with the members yesterday .

A member, requesting anonymity, said, “Nihalani once blamed the former chairperson Sharmila Tagore in a meeting, for clearing films like Omkara, which according to him, set he trend for clearance of films with cuss words.“

The chairperson, watching almost every big film and not keeping with he tradition of CBFC, is another bone of contention among the members, who feel that they are being sidelined. “Ideally, he should be kept outside the revising committee. But at times, Nihalani watches films even after the certification has already been done. He should come into the picture only in case of an emergency. He should have faith in us,“ says a member. “Mr Nihalani has branded me 'liberal' and is just not giving me films to watch. He only gives me third class films,“ adds Nandini Sardesai, also a member.

While most of the former chairpersons refused to comment, Anupam Kher, ex CBFC chief is vociferous in his stand. “Mr Nihalani should let go. He should sit there for certification and not censorship. The chairperson watches a film at the final stage, in case of any crisis or dispute. There are people to do their jobs. He should not take his job so seriously and he should calm down,“ says Kher.