This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
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USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…Thankfully films don't require a censor certificate for screening at film festivals. But if you want to submit your film for the Indian Panorama of the International Film Festival of India or the National Awards, you need to get a censor certificate. The date of certification will be considered as the date of completion of your film. That's precisely the reason why many independent filmmakers apply for the certificate knowing very well that they won't ever use it as their films won't be exhibited commercially.
In 2011, I applied for certification of my short fiction film to be able to submit to a government-run festival. I knew that agents existed to make the process hassle-free for filmmakers like me for a fee, but I decided to apply directly to understand how the system works.
At the time, we had published a news story on DearCinema that CBFC had made the process online. I happily registered on the CBFC website and waited for weeks but never got a confirmation on my account.
I didn't give up and downloaded the PDF application form and filled it up. I calculated the applicable fee for my film using the charts provided on the CBFC website and got a demand draft made in the prescribed name and headed to the censor board office in Malabar hills.
I was well prepared, I had read the FAQs on their website, was equipped with DVD screeners, printouts of synopsis, a filled up form and mostl importantly a demand draft drawn in favour of the pay and accounts officer of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Despite all that, I failed in my first attempt as I was informed by the lady behind the reception desk that new applications are only accepted in the first half of the day. I told her that it's nowhere written on the website; she gracefully informed me that it's the problem of the website but everybody knows the timings!
The next day, I was there again and this time, I was lucky that she accepted my documents but after a cursory glance at them told me that it's a wrong form and handed me over the 'right' form. I tried to match the two forms to realize that the only difference between them was that the form I had filled was not printed by the CBFC but had been downloaded by me from their website!
I had learnt by now that convention, more than transparent rules, dictated the terms there.
While filling up the form, I also realized that CBFC lives in its own idea of time. According to the form, a film can either be a film shot on celluloid, or a video shot on video cassettes. There is no space in-between. They are yet to come to terms with digital cinema. I had shot my film on an HD camera and had got a 2K DCP made for theatrical exhibition. But I had no choice but to declare it a video and say it has one cassette only.
The second correction I had to make on their advice was to declare my film as "Music"! Strange, but that was the only way out. In the form you need to fill up a column for the language of the film. My film had no dialogues. The lady was baffled. She thought for a while and asked if it had music. I told her that since the film is about a dancer, in one sequence he dances and drummers beat their drums; and she promptly put "music" against the column. There was no scope for declaring it a film without spoken words. It explains how far removed the people working for the censor board are from filmmaking. My film is anything but "music"!
Filling up the form all over again was annoying enough but what came next was a complete shock. She refused to accept my demand draft drawn in the name of the payee as prescribed on their website and wanted me to get a new demand draft made. I told her that the payee's name is as prescribed on their website. Her answer was simple – it's a problem of the website. I tried to argue. She advised me to meet the Regional Officer and complaint to him about the errors on the website.
The next stage involved waiting for weeks to receive a call from the CBFC that never came. I kept calling to check the status and finally, after a month, I was happy to be informed that my film had been seen by the examining officer.
The next stage was to submit my file along with the DVD in a sealed envelope and wait for another call to get the certificate.
So, my first challenge was to find the DVD that I had submitted to them. Peons and clerks kept me waiting for one entire day and then asked me to come the following day as they couldn't find my DVD. On my second visit, after waiting helplessly for half a day, a gentleman probably took pity on me and took me to a room which seemed like a screening room. He advised me to search the DVD there on my own. What a privilege after paying a hefty fee! I searched through the pile of DVDs kept on a television trolley. I thanked the man profusely and he smiled and gave his card in return. He was a censor agent, meant to save people like me from the ordeal of getting a film certificate.
After having found my DVD, the battle was only half-won. The next part of the battle was to find my file. Yes, my file was nowhere to be found! I have to admit that the people there aren't always bad. After waiting for another day, I walked into the office of Mr. P. B. Bansode, the examining officer, and narrated him the whole story. He was kind enough to take me to the nooks and crannies of the CBFC office and hunt for the file with me. Finally, we found it lying under a pile of files.
Another unspoken rule of the CBFC certification process is that the applicant is expected to do half the job for the office despite having paid an examination fee. You're expected to know who sits where and what is kept where to be able to get a censor certificate. And it's incredible the kind of free access the CBFC office provides to applicants and touts alike. I wonder if anybody would have noticed had I picked up somebody else's DVD lying in the screening room!
Mr. Bansode was extremely nice, he called me again the next day in the evening and handed me my censor certificate. It felt like victory. I still have the certificate that no one else asked for except the government run festivals.
I made another short after a year and took the services of the gentleman (who is technically a tout) who helped me find my lost DVD in the CBFC office.
I always wonder – why did I need a censor certificate at all if my short film can be shown at festivals "uncensored" and there is no prospect of it getting a commercial release.
Corruption breeds in the crowded office of CBFC because it's inefficient and the process – lengthy and bureaucratic. When filmmaking has been democratized with advent of new technology, shouldn't government re-evaluate the very need of censor board? And if it has to stay, shouldn't it be made transparent and accessible for filmmakers?
This article was first published on DearCinema.com, leading Indian website covering indie films and film festivals.
Article written by staff at Bollywood Hungama. Read more
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