South Asia Censorship News

The controversial film Padmavati has been granted a U/A certificate by India's Central Board Of Film Certification. U/a allows children to view the film if accompanied by adults. The certificate is dependent on cuts being made which the CBFC claims are 'modifications'.

The 'modifications' include a re-titling, most likely Padmavat , as this apparently changes the name from an historical character to a fictional character.

Amother key modification suggestion is the insertion of disclaimers, specially one regarding not glorifying the practice of Sati. There will relevant 'modifications' in the Ghoomar song to 'befit' the character portrayed. The certificate, as per procedure, will be issued once the required 'modifications' are carried out and the final material is submitted to the CBFC.

CBFC chairman Prasoon Joshi says the reports of 26 cuts, appearing in a section of media, are incorrect. They must have counted the incorrect spellings of some locations for which changes had been suggested, he clarified, adding, There are no cuts, only modifications.

The modification details and the CBFC's decision have been shared with the producers--Viacom 18 Motion Pictures. According to the CBFC, they were in agreement with the modifications.

Pakistan's federal cabinet has approved an amendment to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca), 2016, aimed at bringing blasphemy and pornography within the ambit of the cybercrime law.

The issue of offences relating to blasphemy was recently taken up by the Islamabad High Court during the hearing of a petition filed against alleged uploading of supposedly objectionable material on social media.

Additional Attorney General Afnan Karim Kundi had last week informed the court that the federal government was amending Peca to include blasphemy and pornography as scheduled offences in the cybercrime law.

India's Central Board of Film Certification is set to appoint a panel of historians to watch the controversial movie Padmavati, after the makers of the movie stated that it was partially based on historical facts.

The film will now be scrutinised for (partial?) historical authenticity.

The movie has been dogged by protests by some fringe Hindutva outfits which claim it was insulting to Rajput pride. Several politicians then weighed in saying they won't allow the release of the movie in Rajasthan.

Even by conservative estimates the film won't be certified before the second week of January. I don't think they can release the film before March or April. That is, provided the CBFC clears the film without any objection, the source said.

Blade Runner 2049 is a 2017 UK / USA / Canada Sci-Fi thriller by Denis Villeneuve.
Starring Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling and Ana de Armas.

Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.

India's film censors at the Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC) have demanded cuts before granting an adults-only 'A' rating for Blade Runner 2049.

All the nude shots, frontal and back have been deleted. It was pointed out to them that the nudity is computer generated rather than real, but this did not sway the censors.

There were also cuts to blur liquor bottles wherever they are shown.