Central Board of Film Certification


The Central Board of Film Certification is a statutory film-certification body in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India. It is tasked with "regulating the public exhibition of films under the provisions of the Cinematograph Act 1952." Films screened in cinemas and on television may only be publicly exhibited in India after certification by the board.

History

The Indian Cinematograph Act came into effect in 1920, seven years after the production of India's first film: Dadasaheb Phalke's Raja Harishchandra. Censorship boards were originally independent bodies under the police chiefs of the cities of Madras, Bombay, Calcutta, Lahore, and Rangoon.
After the 1947 independence of India, autonomous regional censors were absorbed into the Bombay Board of Film Censors. The Cinematograph Act of 1952 reorganised the Bombay board into the Central Board of Film Censors. With the 1983 revision of cinematography rules, the body was renamed the Central Board of Film Certification.

Principles

The board's guiding principles are to ensure healthy public entertainment and education and, using modern technology, to make the certification process and board activities transparent to filmmakers, the media and the public.

Certificates and guidelines

The board currently issues four certificates. Originally, there were two: U and A. Two more were added in June 1983: U/A and S. The board may refuse to certify a film.
The certificates are:
Sometimes alternate film certificates issued are V/U, V/UA, V/A which are similar to U, U/A, A.

Guidelines

The board's guidelines are:
Since 2004, censorship has been rigorously enforced. An incident was reported in which exhibitor staff – a clerk who sold the ticket, the usher who allowed minors to sit, a theater manager and the partners of the theater complex – were arrested for non-compliance with certification rules.

Composition and leadership

The board consists of a chairperson and 23 members, all of whom are appointed by the central government. Prasoon Joshi chairs the board; Joshi became its 28th chairperson on 11 August 2017, after Pahlaj Nihalani was fired. Nihalani had succeeded Leela Samson after Samson quit in protest of an appellate tribunal's overturning of a board decision to refuse certification for . Samson had succeeded Sharmila Tagore.
The board, headquartered in Mumbai, has nine regional offices:
No.NameFromTo
1C S Aggarwal15 January 195114 June 1954
2B D Mirchandani15 June 19549 June 1955
3M D Bhatt10 June 195521 November 1959
4D L Kothari22 November 195924 March 1960
5B D Mirchandani25 March 19601 November 1960
6D L Kothari2 November 196022 April 1965
7B P Bhatt23 April 196522 April 1968
8R P Nayak31 April 196815 November 1969
9M V Desai12 December 196919 October 1970
10Brig. R. Streenivasan20 October 197015 November 1971
11Virendra Vyas11 February 197230 June 1976
12K L Khandpur1 July 197631 January 1981
13Hrishikesh Mukherjee1 February 198110 August 1982
14Aparna Mohile11 August 198214 March 1983
15Sharad Upasani15 March 19839 May 1983
16Surresh Mathur10 May 19837 July 1983
17Vikram Singh8 July 198319 February 1989
18Moreshwar Vanmali20 February 198925 April 1990
19B P Singhal25 April 19901 April 1991
20Shakti Samanta1 April 199125 June 1998
21Asha Parekh25 June 199825 September 2001
22Vijay Anand26 September 200119 July 2002
23Arvind Trivedi20 July 200216 October 2003
24Anupam Kher16 October 200313 October 2004
25Sharmila Tagore13 October 200431 March 2011
26Leela Samson1 April 201116 January 2015
27Pahlaj Nihalani19 January 201511 August 2017
28Prasoon Joshi12 August 2017Present

Controversy

The board has been associated with a number of scandals. Film producers reportedly bribe the CBFC to obtain a U certificate, which entitles them to a 30-percent reduction in entertainment tax.
In 2002, War and Peace was edited 21 times before the film was approved for release. According to Patwardhan, "The cuts that asked for are so ridiculous that they won't hold up in court. But if these cuts do make it, it will be the end of freedom of expression in the Indian media." A court ruled that the cut requirement was unconstitutional, and the film was shown uncensored.
That year, Indian filmmaker and CBFC chair Vijay Anand proposed legalizing the exhibition of X-rated films in selected cinemas. Anand said, "Porn is shown everywhere in India clandestinely... and the best way to fight this onslaught of blue movies is to show them openly in theatres with legally authorised licenses". Anand resigned less than a year after becoming chairperson in the wake of his proposal.
The board refused to certify Gulabi Aaina in 2003; Rangayan unsuccessfully appealed the decision twice. Although the film is banned in India, it has been screened in the UK.
Final Solution, a 2004 documentary examining religious riots between Hindus and Muslims in Gujarat which killed over 1,000 people, was also banned. According to the board, the film was "highly provocative and may trigger off unrest and communal violence". After a sustained campaign, the ban was lifted in October of that year.
The CBFC demanded five cuts from the 2011 American film, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, because of nudity and rape scenes. The producers and the director, David Fincher, eventually decided not to release the film in India.
CEO Rakesh Kumar was arrested in August 2014 for accepting bribes to expedite the issuance of certificates. The board demanded four cuts , because of nude scenes. The directors refused to make the changes, and the film was not certified.
CBFC chair Leela Samson resigned in protest of political interference in the board's work in 2015 after its decision to refuse certification of the film, , was overturned by an appellate tribunal. Samson was replaced by Pahlaj Nihalani, whose Bharatiya Janata Party affiliation triggered a wave of additional board resignations. The board was criticised for ordering the screen time of two kissing scenes in the James Bond film Spectre to be cut by half for release.
Udta Punjab, co-produced by Anurag Kashyap and Ekta Kapoor, inspired a list of 94 cuts and 13 pointers. The film was approved for release with one cut and disclaimers by the Bombay High Court. A copy of the film was leaked online, with evidence indicating possible CBFC involvement. Kashyap posted on Facebook that although he did not object to free downloads, he hoped that viewers would pay for the film. In August 2017, days after his removal as CBFC chair, Nihalani said in an interview that he had received instructions from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to block the release of this film and at least one other.
Lipstick Under My Burkha, directed by Alankrita Shrivastava and produced by Prakash Jha, was originally denied certification. The film, which had been screened at international film festivals, was eligible for the Golden Globe Awards. The filmmakers appealed to the board's Film Certification Appellate Tribunal, which authorised its release. The FCAT requested some cuts, and the film was released with an A certificate. Shrivastava said, "Of course I would have loved no cuts, but the FCAT has been very fair and clear. I feel that we will be able to release the film without hampering the narrative or diluting its essence."