Filmmaking in the olden days are bereft of many problems experienced by filmmakers. Currently filmmakers are experiencing torute due to politics during certification of films by censor board. Many top filmmakers in India experienced this problem and from south Ram Gopal Varma, Mohan Babu and others faced this problem. Ram Gopal Varma even went to the extent of approaching court against Censor Board.
Many times police arrested Censor Board officials for taking money and passing films with clean U certificates and troubling other filmmakers by not passing the films. Many times filmmakers tried committing suicide too due to censor board high handedness. Udta Punjab's 94 cuts by censor board shocked all. This triggered huge debate among political and film circles.
The film 'Udta Punjab' has revealed some worst governance in the country. It has on one hand manifested the failure of Punjab government under the surveillance of Akali Dal and BJP to check the drug menace and on the other hand the political role in censoring a film has propped up ever since Pahlaj Nihalani, a B-grade filmmaker and a staunch follower of PM Narendra Modi has come to charge. It is therefore that he has been trying to turn down 'Udta Punjab' as the major problem of the state is unearthed.
The Union government and the Information Broadcasting Ministry has to now consider if such unworthy political servitors should be put in key positions. The government has shown their disappointment when it comes to Nihalani and Gajendra Chauhan, another B-grade actor in (FTII) appointments.
When it comes to Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), a committee is formed by the government under the filmmaker Shyam Benegal for censoring films.
With films like ‘PK,’ ‘Piku,’ ‘Kahani,’ ‘Queen,’ ‘NH 10,’ ‘Haider,’ ‘Aligarh,’ ‘Neerja’ and ‘Court’ the film making fraternity is moving towards showing the society the real picture and if this is suppressed the "freedom of speech" right can hurt the government as much as censorship of the press.
