Dear CBFC… Why You Ban These Cuss Words???

It is no secret that the Indian censor board has been interjecting with Bollywood’s creativity a bit too much. Nothing much has changed this time around either.

Recently, the censor board chief released a statement containing a list of words that are to be not used by Indian filmmakers in their movies.

This list contains two columns, where the first one contains words in English, the second section depicts Hindi words that they have banned.

In the latter section, words such as “maarna”, “lena”, “dena”, “bajana” and “phadna”, to name a few, which are often used as violent or sexual innuendos, are banned, too.

The Central Board of Film Certification chairman Pahlaj Nihalani, as per reports, has sent this particular list to the Producers’ Association and Regional Officers.

“Haramzada” is another word that has been banned by CBFC. Remember the good ol’ days when we watched Dharmendra’s movies that contained this particular cuss word? Yes, reminisce those days and come back to the modern day while bidding adieu to the time when dialogues containing “cuss” words made sense.

Twitteratis expressed their concerns condemning this move exercised by CBFC. One Twitter user made a valid point suggesting all movies should then be unanimously released with ‘U’ certification, as ‘A’ certification would not make sense anymore.

It has only been close to a month since Pahlaj Nihalani took up the role as the Censor Board chief. His list contains 36 cuss words that are to be banned from Bollywood films.

The passing of this circular has caused internal rift within the CBFC with Ashoke Pandit leading the way claiming this order to be “murder” of creativity. He also claimed in his tweet that he was not consulted about the objectionable words.

Other than profane words, even the word ‘Bombay’ is to be excluded from movies. This is with reference to the Government of Maharashtra notification sent out in year 1996 where Mumbai is to be used instead of Bombay.

The order sent out by Mr. Nihalani reads as follows, “It has been noticed that some of the objectionable words/abusive words are still to be deleted from the film”.

So, what next can we expect…ban on item numbers, lack of gore scenes (which, by the way, Bollywood does not use as much as Hollywood)!! The clock’s ticking, time’s moving on and the new generation is walking in.

Though the conventional audience can deal with sobriety, the newer audience demands scenes pumped with adrenaline, a hundred cuss words and people getting killed in movies, even if the deaths make no sense.

Banning is not an option. Let’s hope the CBFC understands the audience’s demands and comes to terms with what they want to allow or ban.