Bollywood meets I&B minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore; discuss censorship issues

A host of Bollywood biggies converged at a suburban five star to attend a closed door meeting to discuss the censorship issues and unruly diktats from CBFC that have been plaguing filmmakers lately. And giving their complaints a patient listening was none other than Minister of State of Information & Broadcasting, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.

In attendance from Bollywood were Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma, Anurag Kashyap, Gulzar, Shabana Azmi, Deepika Padukone, Sudhir Mishra, Mukesh Bhatt, Vidya Balan and husband Siddharth, Karan Johar, Ritesh Sidhwani, Vishal Bharadwaj, Sunil Lulla of Eros, Ajit Andhare of Viacom 18 and a few others.

The meeting was convened to discuss the dictatorial ways of CBFC after its new chief, Pahlaj Nihalani took charge. The minister is said to have given everyone a chance to air their views and is reported to have expressed regret at the recent functioning of the censor board. Rathore reportedly said that he had reprimanded Nihalani (who was not present yesterday at the meet) and told him in clear terms that he had no business hijacking the board and acting like its Examining or Revising committee. However, no one demanded Pahlaj’s removal in yesterday’s meeting.

Aamir, one of the key members at yesterday’s meet later told the waiting media that the minister is mulling over the decision of changing the name of CBFC from certification board to rating board. The Minister later addressed the media and said, “"No individual can affect the certification of films, so is the process. Things are made in such a manner that no one person can hijack the system."

CBFC and Pahlaj Nihalani in particular faced severe backlash after releasing a list of 28 cuss words which were deemed unfit for usage in films and proposed to be disallowed. Following great furore, the list was summarily withdrawn. Pahlaj however had his way by forcing the makers of Dum Laga ke Haisha to beep out the word ‘lesbian’ from their movie. Anushka Sharma too had to face teething issues from the board and was granted clearance only after editing out nine scenes.

The two and a half hour long meet came to an end with the Minister promising to set things right and also assuring to meet the film fraternity at regular intervals to sort out issues.