New Delhi: The Shyam Benegal panel in its recommendations for smooth functioning of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has said that it should only be a film certification body to categorise suitability of the film to audience groups.
The first part of the report was submitted on April 26 and the second part of the report on reforms in film certification process will be sent to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry soon.
The panel had recommended in its report that categorisation of films should be more specific and apart from U category, the UA Category can be broken up into further sub-categories – UA12+ & UA15+. The A category should also be sub-divided into A and AC (Adult with Caution) categories.
The certification of films shall be carried out in accordance with the guidelines proposed for certification that have been split into three sections, with each section required to be read with the other two – General Guidelines, Issue Related Guidelines and Category Specific Guidelines.
The committee had been given time till June 20 to submit its recommendation on issues relating to clearances to be obtained from the Animal Welfare Board under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and also matters related to depiction of smoking in films.
In the wake of the controversy surrounding the board's decision on 'Udta Punjab', Union Finance and Information & Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley said some very radical changes" in film certification will be announced soon.
"You will probably have a system where you will have to have a certificate. The correct word is certification and not censorship. Certification norms will have to be liberal," he said while speaking at the CNN News18 Indian of the Year Award show on Thursday.
"There is a well documented report by Shyam Benegal. The first part has come to me and is under consideration. Over the next few days we are going to announce some very radical changes in that," he added.
'Udta Punjab', a film that portrays the problem of drug addiction in the state, has been asked to cut several portions from the film on the ground that it shows the state in a bad light.
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