The Bombay high court on 5th August asked the Central Board of Film Certification to justify the ‘UA’ certificate it granted to Chidiakhana, a film produced by the Children’s Film Society (India). It asked the CBFC to grow up, and added that children’s films must change with the times.
A bench of the high court consisting of Justice Satyaranjan Dharmadhikari and Justice Gautam Patel was hearing a petition filed by the CFSI after the CBFC directed it to cut a word and a scene if it wanted a ‘UA’ certificate for the film. The CBFC told the CFSI that if it did not want a ‘UA’ certificate but instead preferred a ‘U’ certificate, many more scenes would have to be deleted. Saying that a ‘UA’ certificate (which presupposes that a film is watched by a minor under parental guidance) was more advisory than anything else, the bench explained that the CBFC guidelines were out of synch with reality and needed revision. The court further said that although the CBFC guidelines say that violence cannot be glorified in films, the fact is that there is violence in society. “How will children know what is atrocity?” Justice Dharmadhikari asked, adding that today’s children were busy with classes, projects and tuitions and lacked a home atmosphere. “We are not dealing with kids of the 1950s and 1960s… We are dealing with kids born after 2000, who are exposed to mobiles and laptops.”