Mumbai: A draft bill has been introduced by the central government, which has the power to overturn the decisions of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), popularly known as the Censor Board. An online petition has now been started against this and filmmakers and artists across the country have started raising their voices.
On June 18, in view of the changes in the Cinematograph Act 1952, the Central Government issued a notification asking for more suggestions from the people regarding changes in this Act. In such a situation, filmmakers and artists from across the country including Bollywood are now raising their voice against this bill.
So far, more than 1000 filmmakers, artists, writers, students, academicians have signed in support of the e-petition started in protest against this bill, which makes the central government powerful by bypassing the decisions of the Censor Board. In doing so, questions have been raised on the intention of the government.
Filmmakers, actors, writers like Anurag Kashyap, Hansal Mehta, Dibakar Banerjee, Farhan Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Zoya Akhtar, Abhishek Choubey, Vetri Maran, Rohini Hattangadi, Varun Grover have signed the online petition so far.
The popular film ‘Eb alle oo!’ released on Netflix last year. Director of Prateek Vats has played an important role in starting this petition. Talking to ABP News, Prateek said that till now more than 1000 people have signed against this bill and the number of signatories is increasing continuously. The director said, ‘With the intention of making changes in the Cinematograph Act 1952, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has also sought suggestions from the people. In such a situation, people are opposing the new provisions by sending various suggestions to the government through this petition.
In the petition, the new provisions of the Act have been described as dangerous for the film industry. According to it, “Such a provision would adversely affect the independence of the Censor Board and Supreme Court and would confer supreme power on the Central Government over the screening of films in the country. It would endanger the freedom of expression and democratic protest.”
The petition issued against the Bill introduced by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting with new provisions to amend the Cinematograph Act, 1952 states, “We demand that the government empowered to withdraw the film certificate issued by the Censor Board This provision should be withdrawn.
Before the start of this petition, well-known filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj, through his tweet, had strongly opposed the changes in the Cinematograph Act 1952 and appealed to the people associated with the film industry to strongly oppose this bill.
It has been further written in this petition that after the amendment of the Act, all the filmmakers will be helpless in the hands of the government, their freedom to make films will be in danger.
Through this petition, a demand has also been made to restore the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) once again. Let us tell you that in the month of April this year, the Central Government abolished the existence of the FCAT constituted to appeal against the decisions of the Censor Board. In such a situation, the filmmakers are left with the only way to appeal against the censor board in the court.
Watch this space for more updates.
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