AFTER BACKLASH, NIHALANI SAYS WON’T WORK TO PLEASE MEDIA
NEW DELHI: Days after the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) faced a backlash over the refusal of certification to Lipstick Under My Burkha, its chairperson Pahlaj Nihalani said the censor board will not work under any media pressure.
Talking exclusively to ANI, Nihalani said, “No one knows the process for certification of films and the CBFC will not work under any kind of pressure from media or social media. The CBFC has the responsibility of certifying films and it also has guidelines which we all follow. If a movie is not as per the three ratings, U, U/A or A, we can refuse certificate to that film.”
“We see a total of 2,500 films in a year and 82%of them were passed without a single cut. From the remaining 18%, 2% have gone to the revising committee and then to the tribunal. If out of 2,500 movies, a film does not get a certificate, there is no point of making it an issue,” he added.
The CBFC chairperson said the treatment given to the issue raised in the movie is not appropriate. “We only have objection with the content of the movie. The treatment given to the issue of women empowerment was the reason to deny a certificate to the film. We returned the movie back to the filmmaker and asked him to show the picture to FCAT or the court.”
Nihalani believes till the time he is the chairperson of the board, his staff will follow the guidelines strictly.