WHY SEPARATE CENSORSHIP FOR OTHER LANGUAGE SUBTITLES: HC

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Friday directed the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), commonly known as the Censor Board, to respond to a petition challenging the validity of a notice issued by the CBFC. The Censor Board in April had said that a separate censorship certificate would be required for subtitles scrolled in languages other than the one in which the movie is produced.

The petition was filed by the Indian Motion Picture Producers Association (IMPPA), which has over 11,000 film producers as its members.

The division bench of Justice RM Borde and Justice VM Deshpande has asked CBFC to file a reply in two weeks.

On Friday, advocate Ashok Saraogi, who represented IMPPA, submitted that at no point of time since 1952, when the Cinematograph Act came into force, that the film producers were required to obtain any such separate censor certificates. The producers have to resubmit the film for separate certification for subtitles once the dialogues are translated in different languages and subtitles are prepared in respective languages.

Advocate Advait Sethna, while appearing for CBFC, said the law requires film producers to submit films, duly complete in all senses, including background music and subtitles for censor certification. Once such a certificate is issued, producers are not allowed to make any changes in the film, even in the subtitles. For example, if the cuss words are used in the film, the subtitles have to be masked for the offending portion, Sethna said in defence of the April 2018 notice.

Saraogi urged the bench to stay the notice. The judges, however, refused to do so. “We cannot grant ex parte interim relief without letting the respondents file their affidavits,” they said.

THE PETITIONER SAID OVER 100 FILMS WERE HELD UP AND HAVE TO BE RECENSORED FOR OBTAINING CERTIFICATE FOR SUBTITLES