Art & Entertainment

A Sirocco Chase

Will I&B monitor those morning shows?

Advertisement

A Sirocco Chase
info_icon

Earnest Proposal...

  • The Union information & broadcasting ministry has sounded the Planning Commission on a plan to hire private investigators to monitor morning shows in theatres
  • The ministry’s feedback is that adult content is spliced in during screenings at morning shows
  • While this practice has stopped in the metros, theatres in small towns continue with it
  • Is the plan practicable? It’s a matter of conjecture.

***

Can you picture a war film being spliced with adult content for screening in a cinema hall? Maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but the Union information and broadcasting ministry has reasons to believe that the practice of inserting “objectionable content” in films certified by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is rampant in small towns. To check this, the ministry has a unique proposal: hire private investigators to monitor movies and file complaints with the local authorities if they come across any violations.

Advertisement

Actually, the CBFC holds the copyright to the original idea, but it is learnt that the ministry has more than warmed up to it. In fact, the idea has made it to the ministry’s submission to the Planning Commission for the Twelfth Plan. Officials say it’s actually an old proposal that was never put into effect being reintroduced. In the early 1990s, theatres were known to spice up the ‘adult’ quotient of early morning shows (usually of movies already bearing an ‘A’ certificate) by splicing them with pornography, soft for the most part, but occasionally venturing into the hardcore. With suggestive or downright risque titles and titillating posters, theatre owners would attract crowds and rake it in. There was a time when theatres would even show so-called educational films on pregnancy and childbirth, and post-interval, screen some pornographic films. Though these practices have largely disappeared from the major metros, thanks to the advent of cheap dvd players and the internet, they are still alive in small towns and some single-screen theatres.

Advertisement

The ministry says it has received complaints from the public on such content being shown in some cinema halls in the smaller towns. The proposal to hire detectives is being cast as a feedback mechanism that will enable CBFC members to crack down on the screening of deleted scenes or pornography. For, beyond certification—‘A’ for adult viewers and ‘U’ for unrestricted viewing—there’s little CBFC can do once the films reach the theatres: it simply does not have the wherewithal to monitor thousands of screenings across the country, while local police and state governments usually act on specific complaints rather than keep watch on each theatre. In its submission to the Planning Commission, which has to clear the proposal, the ministry has sought an annual budgetary allocation of Rs 2.5 crore.

The ministry also has plans to push some other ideas it has been toying with: regulating content on television channels, for instance. While the ministry sends showcause notices to channels whenever it is “felt” they have transgressed, the usual plea is that the action was necessitated because of complaints from the public. But deciding on what amounts to “objectionable” content is certainly a fuzzy business.

Sadly, progressive proposals, some by former CBFC chiefs (the late Vijay Anand, for example), even offered reasons to allow theatres to show adult content, thereby making such screenings legitimate. But the government of his day turfed him out, and CBFC continues to be referred to in common usage as a “censor board” rather than the certifying body it is. Times haven’t changed, it seems, for the ministry, which continues to take on the self-appointed role of guardian of culture. Perhaps the silver lining to the latest proposal is that it will provide employment to those hired to monitor shows.

Advertisement

Tags

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement