Is The Censor Board Biased?

By Anant Mathur (December 21, 2010)

The short answer is... absolutely! 

I actually laughed when I read this article “Sudhir Mishra cries foul against censors for Tera Kya Hoga”. I love how dumb Indian filmmakers are. I’m sure this is just another publicity stunt, but the only thing this article promotes is how stupid Sudhir Mishra is. I mean the guy is wondering if there’s a “separate censorship code” for him. Of course there is. What’s there to think about? When you only make one style of films and your previous films are stuck at the censor board for language and lewd acts, it’s almost guaranteed your next will have to face the music as well, regardless of its content.

Over the years, you create an image for yourself as a filmmaker. No one will ever think to object a Sooraj Barjatya film, even if he decides to make a sex comedy, chances are it will pass with a ‘U’ certificate simply because of the reputation he has. Sudhir Mishra has been in the industry for decades, one would think he would’ve figured this out by now. Being oblivious to this is like suggesting the next Quentin Tarantino film will get a PG rating. Not bloody likely.

Most filmmakers have a reputation for certain kinds of films and when they deviate from those genres they’re not as successful. Priyadarshan and David Dhawan are expected to entertain us with comedies. Priyadarshan tried to change tracks recently with Aakrosh and Bumm Bumm Bole, but they bombed miserably. If tomorrow Rajkumar Hirani decides to make a thriller, I doubt he will find the same success he did with his previous films.

It’s sad, but true, the censor board is biased. So, Mr. Sudhir Mishra, either you stop putting lewd content into your films and change your image or stop expecting the censor board to give you a universal rating when clearly they are not going to. They can justify it however they want, the bottom line is your previous films left a certain impression. The censor board takes one look at who made the film and they have an idea what kind of rating to give your latest film, prior to seeing a single frame of it. When they finally do watch the film, they’re trying to find reasons why it shouldn’t get the ‘A’ rating instead of figuring out what rating the film deserves and if your film has any content similar to your previous films, you’ll have a big hill to climb this time.

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