Modi government set to clip powers of Censor Board

New Delhi: The Modi government is all set to clip the powers of the Central Board of Film Certification. The government is preparing to amend the Cinematograph Act — as recommended by the Shyam Benegal Committee — to curtail the powers of the CBFC.

As per the proposed amendments being brought in, the CBFC is likely to lose its powers to recommend cuts to films and is expected to be made only a film certification body.

Its operations would be restricted to categorising the suitability of the film to audience groups on the basis of age and maturity.

The move to curtail the powers of the Censor Board was initiated after it was embroiled in several controversies over recommendations of cuts to various movies, including its recent directive making 93 cuts to the Shahid Kapoor, Kareen Kapoor and Alia Bhat starrer Udta Punjab.

Sources said that the government is preparing to amend the Cinematograph Act and will have a committee in the CBFC which would be mandated to certify the films submitted to it. There is also a proposal to form a second committee to monitor the content of the film and this is likely to be confined to “national interest and security”. The certification of films is also likely to be changed with different classifications like U/A, Plus 12, Plus 15 and two categories of adults — one ‘Adult’ and another ‘Adult With Caution’.

The government is also planning to simplify the process of certification by allowing out-of-turn certification for which the applicant is expected to be charged five times the fee that would have to be paid if the certification was done in the normal course.