While the debate over the newly constituted Central Board of Film Certification’s controversial and conservative attitude towards film content rages on, Aamir Khan declared that he does not support censorship at all. The actor who was speaking at the trailer launch of Shonali Bose’s film Margarita With A Straw said,“I don’t believe in censorship. I feel that this is totally wrong and the essence of cinema is lost when you take chunks out of it. Rather than censoring a film, we should let people decide what they want to see and what they don’t want to see.”
Aamir suggested that India should have a rating system where films can be filtered for viewing according to ages above 12, above 15, above 18 and so on. He added, “I don’t think adults in our country should be kept away from material. They will themselves choose what they want to see and what they don’t want to see.”
Here’s what Anushka Sharma and Navdeep Singh had to say about their film NH 10’s run in with the CBFC.
Anushka Sharma, Actress and Co-producer, NH10
“We don’t want to compromise with the film, in fact we have had a screening today and we have got an A certificate. As far as we could we have not compromised with the story and somewhere we are happy with what has happened. We have a very responsible and honest film. It is something that a lot of people might have experienced in any case and that is what they will watch in the film.”
Navdeep Singh, Director, NH10
“Initially, CBFC asked for 30 audio and video cuts, but we justified our position and the cuts came down to nine. There was an argument over the word kutti, which I insisted on retaining, but Mr Nihalani just didn’t agree, so we decided to comply as we don’t have the time to take the film to a higher forum. I have no issues with an A certificate. I knew it was coming the day we started the film.”
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)