Prasoon Joshi slams Censor over Margarita With A Straw

A film maker has no intent of making a film to spoil society but, one should recognize his talent and effort behind it, he said slamming the Censor Board.

According to the Information Technology Rules of 2011, censorship is any objectionable content includes anything that “threatens the unity, integrity, defense, security or sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign states or public order".

But, it seems Bollywood is still continuing to feel the prick of censorship. The most recent issue was the film NH10 which got an ‘A’ certificate by the Censor Board of India. The disgruntled movie makers moved to court against the decision. Films today not only go through release day pressure but also need to prepare for the ultimate censorship which affects them immensely. One such case is with the yet-to-release film Margarita With A Straw which may have a looming ‘A’ certificate in the horizon because of its sensitive story.

Margarita With A Straw is a film about a girl with Cerebral Palsy who rediscovers her sexuality. During the film’s trailer launch, the director and cast were asked the impending question about the Censor Board when screenwriter and lyricist Prasoon Joshi took a stand on behalf of the film industry and said, “This is not an industry of irresponsible people but of creativity. A film maker has no intent of making a film to spoil society but, one should recognize his talent and effort behind it.”

Censorship has been an intrinsic part of Indian Cinema for many years now. Having evolved through the ages, from only disallowing explicit love making scenes to now deleting abusive words, censorship still remains a hurdle in the path to release for most films. Often words, actions and instances that qualify as inappropriate and are many times integral to the story are the ones under the scanner.