Censor woes continue for Tamil filmmakers. The latest film, which has been denied censorship is a bilingual Tamil-Hindi documentary-fusion album titled Thupparivu 2020, directed by independent filmmaker Dinesh, which is themed on PM Modi’s Swachh Bharat campaign. Talking to DC, a visibly upset Dinesh said, “I have sung the song along with popular devotional singer Veeramanidaasan and both of us, along with several children have appeared in the visuals. The album is meant for creating awareness on the ‘clean India’ concept. But the CBFC is denying a certificate stating that it is against the government and will trigger off a controversy.”
The short documentary has been shot in Varanasi, where human dead bodies are disposed in River Ganga, thus polluting the river, and other large garbage pileups in various parts of the country. Dinesh adds, “First they asked me to remove the reference of PM Modi from the album. Later, they said the lyrics are provocating and there’s a hidden communism in it. Each time I go for reviewing, a new panel of members would sit and watch. They will say their views and butcher the song! Finally, after going for the fourth time when I realised that nothing seems to move, I took a call to release the uncut version on online platforms.”
The sad part is that when the parent language (Tamil here) was denied a censor certification, the makers cannot apply for the other languages. Therefore, subtitling in Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and English has been done for Thupparivu 2020.
