DNA (August 22, 2017)

If you have a potentially controversial film with a questionable quotient of sex and violence, this is the right time to get a censor certificate.

Apparently, the brief to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) from the I & B Ministry is to certify and not censor anything for as long as hard policy-decisions are not taken in the presence of the new censor board chairperson Prasoon Joshi. One of the big beneficiaries of this post-liberalisation phase at the CBFC is a film called Umeed, directed by Rajat S Mukherjee. This political drama about drug tests performed on children contains several graphic scenes and a shot of a model on the ramp exposing her nipples under a bikini top.

Says a source, “We’ve cut only a shot showing a picture of Indira Gandhi. We are not allowed to cut anything at the moment for fear of being answerable to the I &B the high command. The brief from the top is to let everything go. If a film is certified ‘A’ it can get away with anything. Those kinds of films that were earlier getting ‘UA’ certificates are now getting ‘U’ certificates.”