Producers urged to submit films in Indian Sign Language for censors

Tollywood producer Abhishek Agarwal lauds the decision of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to make it mandatory for producers all over India to submit prints with accessibility features for hearing and visual impaired audiences while applying for a censor certificate for their movies.

“This is a path-breaking and a decision with foresight since there are over eight million visually-impaired audience in India and it would help them to watch movies,” says Abhishek Agarwal who himself set a precedent by making two of his two big films-Kashmir Files and Tiger Nageswara Rao –in Indian Sign Language.

“We screened a couple of shows of ‘Kashmir Files’ for visually-challenged viewers and they liked it,” he says and adds “However, for our other film “Tiger Nageswara Rao’ we even censored the film in Indian Sign Language and set a precedent in Tollywood. Our Hyderabad censor officer cooperated a lot and they could issue a certificate after 30 days since it was a unique attempt and sought some time. If more films insist on seeking certification of sign languages, there will be a bit of pressure on censor boards in varied places,” he points out.

Earlier, The Indian Motion Picture Producers Association (IMPPA) has informed its members that all films must include accessibility standards for individuals with hearing and visual impairments. These features include subtitles, audio files, audio descriptions and others from September 1 onwards. “It would definitely expand the fan base of movies and generate more money too. For instance, it will bring in specially-challenged viewers across the world on OTT since movies on digital platforms reach out to 200 countries and shore up viewership and money along with rise in theatrical footfalls,” he points out.

He also claims that there are few companies who would alter the audio for sign language and they have to take more films now and they will get some work as well. On the cost for each movie to be pegged at Rs 40 to 50 lakhs for each movie, he says, “I can’t talk about figures but there some companies for working on closed captioning or open captioning and audio description make it friendly for specially challenged to understand cinema much better,” he says and concludes, “With just 10% of these audience out of eight million turn up in theatre, it would add 80 lakhs audience and bolster the collections and help producer to make more money and survive, when theatres are finding it hard to get footfalls.”