Broadcasters CBFC battle it out over television certification

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

Canada: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…Tense television broadcasters can breathe a sigh of relief. It seems the proposal to not screen 'Adults' films on television may not be implemented at all.

Recently, after the banning of the telecast of The Dirty Picture on Sony Entertainment, minutes before the scheduled time, put the Information & Broadcasting ministry on high alert. The Censor Board Of Film Certification (CBFC) was asked by the I & B ministry to re-examine the entire system of re-certifying 'A' films to make them suitable for 'UA' (suitable for parental guidance) viewing in the daytime slots on television.

According to sources, there was a serious proposal to completely ban 'Adult' films from television and thereby do away with the procedure of re-certification for television.

Television broadcasters went into a panic mode. A hush-hush high-level meeting between CBFC members and television broadcasters was called on, Saturday, May 12. The heated discussion lasted for several hours and went on till late in the night.

The outcome, however, was in favour of the broadcasters. According to very reliable sources, the proposal to ban 'A' films completely from satellite television has been revoked. Instead some very strict guidelines regarding the telecast of 'A' films on television are likely to be laid down.

Says a high-level source from a television channel, "We were locked in a heated discussion with the censor-board members for many hours. We broadcasters had to substantiate our claim that any move to ban 'A' films from television would prove seriously damaging to producers and television broadcasters' financial interests. Our main argument was, how do we fill up movie channels if only 'U' films (films for all ages) are allowed?"

After much argument back and forth it has apparently been resolved that the CBFC would not recommend a seizure of 'A' films on television.

Says the source, "The procedure of re-censoring 'A' films for television is likely to continue. However even when films are passed with a 'UA' certificate stringent rules would have to be applied. These include prominent scrolls declaring the relevance and full significance of the 'UA' certificate and warnings about cigarette smoking being injurious to health."

The CBFC, it is reliably learnt, would make its recommendations to the I &B ministry that the 'UA' certification for the television broadcast of feature films be allowed to continue. But with several new additional riders.