Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; September 22, 2019)

Since August 2017, Prasoon Joshi has successfully chaired the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) with a fewer number of controversies. Prior to his term in office, the CBFC was seen as the villain in Bollywood’s narrative of undue cuts, personal comments and anger against decisions that they forcibly had to accept. In his last year as the CBFC chief, Joshi plans to make the most of his time in the office and leave it in a state of fine balance. Excerpts from BT’s conversation with him:

You’ve spent two years in office as the chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification. Buzz is that you might return for another term...
That’s not in my hands; it’s up to the authorities. I’m a poet at heart and I’m planning to work on a musical with lots of songs at some point. Right now, I am only thinking of making the most of the time I am left with in this office. My policy is, and has been, to iron out everything I can within the purview of the CBFC to ensure that it feels fit, and works as the fine balance between cinema and the citizens. In the last year that I have in this office, I plan to have more meetings, internal and external, in order to pave the way for anyone who steps in after me. So far, my entire tenure has been about holding dialogues to resolve issues. The intent of a creator is almost always good; it’s just that it’s misunderstood sometimes. That is when we need a middle ground, which we find through discussions.

What were the issues that needed to be ironed out or resolved?
First and foremost, most people don’t know or understand what an examining committee is and who its members are. It’s a body that comprises people from all walks of life. They present the probable point of view of a common person, who will eventually watch the film. There are lawyers, engineers, doctors and even housewives, who offer their valuable feedback to filmmakers. Now, a filmmaker might feel differently from what they think and may not agree with their point of view on certain scenes or dialogues, maybe because the intention with which he or she placed those elements in the film has not come across. Previously, we didn’t have as many discussions about these things. Now, there’s room for multiple, long and cordial discussions, which help both sides understand each other’s point of view.

Could you elaborate on what you mean when you refer to a filmmaker’s intent?
Sometimes, certain scenes or dialogues can give you an idea of how this person thinks when it comes to certain sensitive subjects or topics. For instance, the portrayal of women in cinema… While showing a policewoman in a film, if your camera is caressing her body, then there is something very questionable about your intent as a filmmaker. The time has come when we have to look at things differently. Our society is no longer ready to accept certain things. Sensitising filmmakers is very important and they also have to be less adamant and more flexible about what is being told to them. I have always seen my own work from the vantage point of being an artiste. Someone at the bank of a river feels peaceful seeing it, but someone swimming against its force may feel its aggression. The same thing, when seen from different vantage points, tends to have different perceptions and this difference needs to be understood by everyone. Also, the trust between an audience and an aritste should never be lost. If, as an audience, I don’t trust the intention of a filmmaker, I probably will never understand what he was really trying to convey through a film or a scene. There’s little difference between something commercial and something meant for self-satisfaction. A commercial product also has to be sensitive towards the needs and demands of the people.

For a long time, there has also been talk around the need to amend the Cinematograph Act, 1952, to make it more compatible for today’s times.
As the CBFC, we work within the parameters of the act. The changes or amendments are not in our purview. That can happen at the Parliament and ministry levels.

What about the new categories for certification that have been in deliberation stages for years now?
The introduction of categories is going through rounds of discussions and deliberations. The suggestions and recommendations in The Shyam Benegal Committee Report and several other reports submitted by committees formed before that are being discussed. The OTT platforms are a new reality of our times, which no one had probably accounted for when these reports were submitted. Categorisation and further classification of films is crucial, but it’s something that is being thought about. Certification happens in almost every country in the world. In a few countries, it’s an autonomous body and in countries like France, which are known for their bold and prolific content, the body is controlled by the government. Quality of cinema is different in different countries. We, as a nation, have to improve the quality of our cinema, and for that, we need a contemporary and an effective system of checks and balances. I have the utmost respect for artistes, who are also my fraternal friends, but we cannot ignore the need for improving the quality of our cinema. This year, I lead the delegation to Cannes where I spoke to many people and they didn’t have very complimentary things to say about our movies. So, we have to get out of the blame game internally, and make the country proud by making some world-class films. Poetry is one craft where we can say we have world-class poets; cinema has the potential to get there, too.

How do you think we can achieve that?
I think it’s a complex subject. We have some exceptionally talented filmmakers in our country, but we also need to tap talent from diverse backgrounds. Our cinema has a tendency to produce clones of anything that works at a given time. We need to get rid of that habit. We need more people from diverse places in the country, who can add a fresh perspective to a story. For instance, the story of a farmer can get a better perspective if it is narrated by someone who belongs to a farmer’s family. His or her perspective will be very different from someone who has only read about them. Uss cinema se mitti ki khushboo aayegi. Diversity needs to be encouraged and we need to get more talent from the grassroots level. This is a dilemma I face with advertising, too. We don’t need people who can do what anyone can do. People with distinct abilities and skill sets are needed to find a unique mix in the space of storytelling. At one point, we made some great films, but then, they started getting repetitive. India was shown from only one vantage point — from that typical exotic eye. We have to now make sure that the world comes out of that and sees the new India, which is going through a rapid change.

A sign of showing the rapidly-changing India is your recently-launched certificate and logo for the CBFC. What drove the design reboot?
So, change comes in two parts — one is the look and feel, and the second is how we work internally. We felt that certification should reflect the changing times that we’re living in. We’re digital and our cinema consumption is across all kinds of screens. While redesigning the logo and the certificate, we ensured that we have a font that is contemporary and the certificate is interactive. Also, for the last two years, I’ve been working closely with the officers and the board members to bring about a lot of changes in the way we work. We had participated in a lot of workshops and discussed ways to make the functioning smoother, internally and externally, and keep the house in order. With increasing dialogues with different pan-India industry bodies, we could also iron out issues that have existed for a long time. The industry put its faith in my intention of making the system smooth and I would credit them for being open to the idea of discussing and resolving problems amicably. The fact that I was trained to run companies came in handy. Even now, in the last year of my tenure, I am honestly trying to deliver on the work that I promised to do when I first held office. When you put the focus on work, half the issues are sorted on their own.