Despite several issues plaguing the film industry — the ongoing FEFSI strike which has stalled the shooting of 40- odd Tamil films — the makers are facing yet another problem in the form of film certification. It was director Ram who faced problems with the Revision Committee for his film Taramani getting an ‘A’ certificate. The reason cited: the movie has a female character who drinks liquor neat! Now, here is yet another filmmaker, Rakesh, whose film Maraindhirundhu Paarkkum Marmam Enna, which has been totally denied of a censor certificate saying it is unfit for viewing.
MPM features Dhruva of Thilagar fame in the lead with Aishwarya Dutta and Anjana playing the female leads. JD Chakravarthy, Saranya Ponvannan, Radha Ravi and Nagineedu are in the supporting cast in the film. When MPM went to the CBFC recently, it was denied a certificate despite the director being ready to make the necessary changes.
Speaking to DC, Rakesh said, “The movie revolves around the atrocities meted out to girl children and women in the society which we come across everyday in newspapers and visual media. There’s no censor for such things. But when I project it through my film as an awareness for the safety of women and kids, they are not wiling to give me a certificate.”
Rakesh adds that there are no guidelines when it comes to certification for filmmakers to know what to shoot and what to avoid. “I even requested them to give either A or U/A for my movie and even broke down. But they did not budge an inch and asked me to go to revising committee. Even to make a movie with good content and message and bring it to theaters, I have to struggle and suffer so much,” Rakesh bursts out.
In Ram’s case, he kicked up a controversy through the cheeky posters of Taramani on social media, mocking the CBFC for awarding an ‘A’ certificate. Ram says, “It is not really a problem with the censor board. The reasons included that one of the female characters (played by Andrea) drinks alcohol without mixing anything in it, smokes twice and has a live-in relationship with her boyfriend! I decided to take an ‘A’ certification.” With a picture of Andrea and a glass of alcohol, the poster reads ‘According to Censor Board, if a male drinks liquor ‘raw’, its U/A, and if a female drinks liquor ‘raw’, the same censor gives ‘A’, so my Taramani is ‘A’.
A controversial Malayalam flick Ka Bodyscapes is also under the CBFC scanner for the over a year. Reportedly, CBFC head Nihalani refused to certify the film stating that the content of the film denigrates female characters. After the makers went to court, an 18-member team was formed to view the movie earlier this week. Unfortunately, out of the 18, nine members felt that the film was unfit for certification. Officials claim the core content of the film can bring disturbances among the people!
