Censor board is a curse to filmmakers: Bikas Ranjan

Mumbai: Writer-director Bikas Ranjan is disheartened with the cuts in his debut movie “Chauranga” and feels that the censor board played a spoilsport by chopping off scenes.

“You can make a film here as there is no dearth oftalent but getting it released is a difficult thing. As the censor board plays the spoil sport by chopping off the film. Censor board is a curse to filmmakers,” the director told PTI.

“In ‘Chauranga’, there were certain scenes that they wanted to be deleted. There was a love making scene. Then they objected to the use of cuss words and a scene involving a dalit boy being tormented. They wanted us to delete all of this.”

“Chauranga” is produced by Onir and Sanjay Suri. Bikas faced several difficulties like getting actors and producers on board for releasing “Chauranga”. “There were difficulties like finding right actors and producers. But the most difficult part is to release the film. I think to screen the film here is difficult as we have censor board and animal welfare board to think of,” he said.

“Chauranga” is the story of a smitten young boy Santu, who gets in trouble for writing a love letter to a girl belonging to an upper caste in a remote village.

As a first time director Bikas feels the cuts are disheartening and discouraging for one’s creativity. “Next time, I will be conscious, thinking whether my film will be cleared or not. The country provides us with freedom of speech but then we have to follow the guidelines of censor board to get the film released,” he said.

“Chauranga” has been getting a lot of appreciation at various film festivals like Indian Film Festival Of Los Angeles, Mumbai Film Festival. It’s set to release on January 8. “I do hope the appreciation that we have got at several film festivals helps in garnering attention here in India,” Bikas said.

But according to Bikas the flip side is that festival films are often seen as serious. “We have to deal with it. If you release a film directly then you need a huge marketing budget to promote independent films. So, this route of going to film festivals for independent movies helps in creating buzz about the film here in India,” he added.