Two films, Modi ka Gaon, that was due release on February 24th, based on the rural development schemes that PM Modi initiatives and Rambhajjan Zindabad a political satire film are experiencing difficulty in getting approval to release.
While Modi ka Gaon has been cleared by the Censor Board, however, it has been sent forward to the PM to get an approval on a NOC, which is a NO Objection Certificate.
On the other hand, Rambhajjan Zindabad has flat out been denied a certificate by the Censor Board on the grounds that the film is too vulgar and regressive.
The exact quotes by Pankaj Nihalani on why they denied RZ a certificate was because “The film is extremely vulgar. The language used for women is inexcusably coarse. It also trivialises rape by showing women being given ‘compensation’ for their ordeal. We cannot allow this film to be certified.”
Hmm…. Sounds like extremely weak excuses to me to be honest.
Because if that were truly the reason to ban a movie then there are plenty of other such films, much worse than this, that should have been denied, but yet were allowed to be released and not just that but with minimal cuts.
Grand Masti and Mastizaade anyone?
Is This A Trend Going Around the World?
I have been noticing this for sometime now that, there has been a growing rise in persecution and blocking of creative people, journalists, writers, filmmakers, etc. on what they can and cannot show, and to what degree can they go against the ruling govt.
And the thing is, this is not just happening here in India, but even Russia, UK and US too.
The media and all parts of it, are being heavily censored and put through a fine tooth comb to find out if any part is going or saying something negative about the ruling govt. especially the person at top.
And after doing so, the concerned censor board, usually puts a stop to them using some kind of technicality or another.
No Freedom of Speech Anymore?
It almost feels like the whole ‘freedom of speech’ thing is only left in our political science books, and is slowly being taken away from the general society.
Nowadays, even when a country is a democracy, one never really knows what might set the hounds or the authorities on a person, just because they posted something that could be considered offensive to the ruling party on their personal social media.
Along with that the increased interference of political parties into the media arts, be it bullying actors and directors to own up to mistakes they never did, beating them up and trashing their sets or creating unnecessary obstacles so that their film is not released.
If this goes on, then surely one day everything will be politically correct and no one will be able to actually say what they want.
Image Credits: Google Images
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