Ratna Pathak Shah,Vikrant Massey, Ahana Kumra React To The Censor Ban On Their Starrer Lipstick Under My Burkha”
Ratna Pathak Shah: “Everyone is making fun of the language used in the letter denying certification, but to me there’s nothing funny about the mindset behind the move. This is exactly the kind of attitude that our film is questioning. No wonder CBFC is running scared. I guess women asking to have a say in their own lives makes a certain section of our society very nervous. But this is a reality that we will have to live with. Our films will reflect this truth more and more. In the last few years films have started talking about things we have brushed under the carpet too long. Gender, caste, class, religious intolerance have shown up in films like Pink, Sairat,Masaan, Firaq, Court etc. And they’re not going to disappear anytime soon. The genie is out of the bottle and won’t go back in! The sooner the CBFC understands this, the less chances of them putting their many feet in their mouths!!I feel there is a real need to debate these issues and not sensationalize them so I hope we can tone down the rhetoric and raise the level of the discourse.”
Vikrant Massey: “It’s a very sad situation we are in. A censor board is a body, or should be one to certify and classify films and not completely censor or probably even suggest crucial cuts. The Indian populace are wise enough to choose what to watch and what not to. If they are eligible to vote and form a government, then they are eligible to choose what they consume as entertainment at their discretion.Whereas, a theatrical release is one of the mediums for providing entertainment. When the entire country is moving towards digitisation and have free -flowing content available over the internet, then why this censorship in a feature format?
It’s not just about Lipstick Under My Burqa, its about paving a new corridor for free-flowing content in movies as well. Hopefully this shall be resolved soon as suggested by the honourable Shyam Benegal committee. If not, there would be no surprise in finding someone else very soon standing at the same place as we are in today.”
Ahana Kumra: “By denying a certification of a film the CBFC has challenged a country’s right to watch a good film made on their home ground. They don’t have that right.”
