South Asia Censorship News

Dishoom is a 2016 India action crime comedy by Rohit Dhawan.
Starring Nargis Fakhri, Akshay Kumar and Jacqueline Fernandez.

When India's top batsman Viraj goes missing in Middle East, two cops Kabir Shergill and Junaid Ansari from either side of Arabian Sea team for a 36-hours man hunt before the final match between India and Pakistan.

Rohit Dhawan's film Dishoom has been banned in Pakistan. According to reports, Pakistan's censor board contended that the film projected the country in a poor light. Pakistan has a bit of history of banning films where Pakistanis/muslims are the villains of the piece.

Actor Varun Dhawan said that the film does not intend to malign any country's reputation, or address any religious issues for that matter:

What we are trying to show is that for certain people money is their religion. It's not being an Indian, Pakistani, Hindu, Muslim or Christian. In the capitalistic world that we live in, money is the biggest driving force for most crimes.

Some reports state that the films have also faced censor troubles in some of the Gulf states due to inappropriate representation.

Update: Referred to government

2nd August 2016. From tribune.com.pk

CBFC Chairman Mobashir Hasan said that after the refusal to award a certificate the decision has now been forwarded to the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and Heritage for further guidance in the matter:

The ministry will decide the fate of the film. Technically the film is not banned but is not being exhibited in the cinemas.

Ka Bodyscapes is a 2016 India / USA gay drama by Jayan Cherian.
Starring Adhithi, Tinto Arayani and Arundhathi.

Three young people, Haris, a gay painter; Vishnu, a rural kabaddi player and their friend Sia, an activist who refuse to conform to dominant norms of femininity, struggle to find space and happiness in a conservative Indian City.

India's Central Board of Film Classification (CBFC), taking umbrage at what it decided are vulgar and offensive scenes in it, has banned the Malayalam film Ka Bodyscapes produced and directed by New York-based film-maker Jayan Cherian.

In a rejection letter sent to the maker of the film, A. Prathibha, regional officer of the CBFC in Thiruvananthapuram, wrote:

The revising committee felt that the entire content of the Malayalam feature film Ka Bodyscapes is ridiculing, insulting and humiliating Hindu religion, in particular portraying Hindu Gods in poor light. Derogatory words are used against women. The Hindu God 'Hanuman' is shown as coming in the books titled 'I am Gay' and other homosexual books. The film has also references to lady masturbating, highlighting 'gay' by many 'gay' posters. The film offends human sensibilities by vulgarity, obscenity and depravity.

The CBFC regional office had earlier referred the film, which is woven around a gay love story, to the review committee. It transferred the review screening to Chennai and postponed it on the eve of the screening scheduled for July 5. Finally, as the maker accused the board of dragging its feet on certifying the film, the review committee watched it on July 15.

Cherian accused the board of suffering from homophobia:

Their basic attitude towards and idea of same sex love is that it's vulgar and obscene.

He said he will move the High Court of Kerala for relief.

After blocking more than 400,000 websites for supposedly objectionable material, now Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is considering to restrict porn sites on mobile handsets also.

Censors said that the authority has received complaints that porn sites are accessible on internet. Whether you access internet through personal computer or mobile phone the law is same; objectionable sites are banned in country, a censor said. He said authority has received complaints that adult content is accessible on almost all the major telecom networks:

We are investigating why it is available on mobile phones, but I think mobile service providers are using VPN.

According to sources in industry, telecom service providers are not blocking porn content due to business considerations. Browsing websites may only consume some megabytes but if you download or watch some movie the data consumption is in gigabytes, a source said.

According to experts, PTA will direct all the telecom operators to establish Internet Exchange Point (IXP) to facilitate the local internet traffic to remain local and block the supposedly objectionable sites.

A legal case has been registered at the Delhi High Court seeking to restrain manufacture, supply and sale of Godfather beer in the city, claiming it hurts religious sentiments.

The plea by a civic organisation claims that sentiments and emotions of the public at large of every religion would be affected as the word God is used by everyone to refer to the almighty power . Devinder Singh, president of Jan Chetna Manch, whinged:.

The Godfather (beer) manufacturers are against humanity and the principle of natural justice as they are intentionally harassing and damaging religious emotions.

The petition is likely to come up for hearing next week.

The Gujarati film Salagto Sawal Anamat (Burning Question Reservation), has formally been banned by the Centre Board of Film Certification (CBFC). For now, it will not be released in theatres anymore.

The producers of the movie were informed that the CBFC claimed that the movie may pose a threat to the integrity and sovereignty of India .

Giving reasons for denial of certification, a CBFC letter states that the film on Patidar quota stir consists of visuals or words which promote communal, obscurantist, anti-scientific and anti-national attitude. It further states that the movie shows visuals or words contemptuous of racial, religious or other groups and that the security of the State is jeopardized."

Now the filmmakers may be forced to court to contest the CBFC's denial of certification.

The director of the film Rajesh Gohil said:

CBFC officials had agreed on an A' certification only if we removed certain scenes that it considered objectionable including two songs glorifying the Patidar community for their struggle.

Gohil said that if they had edited the film the way the CBFC wanted then the length of film would have been reduced to 80 minutes from the current 150 minutes.