CBFC clears Amartya film but snips the word ‘Gujarat’
KOLKATA: The Argumentative Indian, a documentary on Nobel laureate Amartya Sen can finally be seen if its director, national award winner Suman Ghosh, excludes the portion where the economist utters the word ‘Gujarat’.
On Friday, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) formally approved the release of the documentary i n almost its entirety including the three words that it asked the director to mute in July 2017.
“On Friday, I received the formal approval for release, keeping the words ‘cow,’ ‘Hindutava view of India’ and ‘Hindu India.’ Earlier I was asked to mute these portions. However I have been asked to exclude the word Gujarat in the portion where Prof Sen refers to the Gujarat riots. I want to release the documentary by March, ” Ghosh told HT.
Ghosh said he had a discussion with CBFC chairman Prasoon Joshi on Thursday following which the impasse was resolved. “The discussion was extremely cordial. Joshi agreed to my logic on the use of the words that I was earlier asked to mute. On the word ‘Gujarat’, Joshi placed his arguments in a very logical manner. Before the discussion, he watched the documentary. I am happy that the problem has been sorted,” said Ghosh.
The film was shot in two phases in 2002 and 2017. In the hourlong documentary, Sen spoke at length on different social issues, developmental economics and rise of right- wing nationalism in India. The documentary was structured as a conservation between Sen and his student and Cornell University professor Kaushik Basu.
In July last year, the CBFC, then under the chairmanship Pahlaj Nihalani, wanted the four words to be muted and Ghosh refused. He even said that if the board did not clear the documentary he would release it on social network.