Mumbai: The notorious list of 28 cusswords allegedly banned by Pahlaj Nihalani the chairperson of the Central Board Of Film Certification(CBFC) ,surfaced again after a board meeting of the CBFC on Friday when apparently the list was revoked as , according to reports, a majority of the board members voted against the list.
However the censor chief completely refutes the above claim as being irresponsible and damaging . “First of all, the proceedings of the board meeting were highly confidential and not meant to be given out to the public. Censor board members who think they are too smart for words are giving out wrong information to the press pretending all the while that they leaking out confidential information to the media.”
Nihalani says the ban was not evoked at all. “There was no question of banning the banned words. It is not up to the board members to make policy decisions. They can only discuss change. They cannot decide or implement changes.”
Livid at the wrong information being given out Nihalani says, “This is nothing but an attempt to open doors to anarchy. Certain board members have friends in the filmmaking fraternity whom they have promised to allow cuss words in their forthcoming films which have already been certified with the abusive words cleaned out. In trying to gain brownie points in the filmmaking fraternity these self-appointed reformists in the censor board are sending out wrong and dangerous signals to the film industry and society at large.”
Nihalani says Information & Broadcasting ministry’s guidelines are very clear on the issue of verbal censorship. “The guidelines are not for the censor board to change. I don’t have the power to change it. Neither do my board members. The sooner they stop creating the impression of being reformists the better for all of us.”
Nihalani says the list of 28 cusswords allegedly drawn up by him is a myth. “I never drew up any list. And the list of words disallowed by the guidelines is much larger than 28 words because we’ve to take into consideration the implications meanings and relevances of words in many Indian languages while certifying films.”
The censor chief strongly advises the media not to be misled. “There are disgruntled elements within the censor board trying to portray themselves as harbingers of change and reform while I am being seen as the representative of the obsolete status quo. That’s a dangerous and misleading equation being drawn up by some members of the CBFC who want to please their friends by posing as liberal elements.I repeat, they can’t change the guidelines. I can’t change the guidelines.The information in the media that the cuss words were revoked at the censorboard’s meeting on Friday is completely
