Anurag Kashyap: 'Haraamkhor' ban: Senile and incapable Nihalani getting back at court

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap who feels its a waste of time and energy to wrangle with the Indian censor board for certification of adult films says its important that in a scenario when the censor body is chaired by a senile and intellectually incapable person such as Pahlaj Nihalani movie makers must be empowered to approach the court directlyAnurag KashyapGive us the power that if we are making an adult film and we are seeking an adult certificate we can go straight to the court or straight to the Tribunal Film Certification Appellate Tribunal FCAT Why should we go through the humiliation of going through him Pahlaj Nihalani and waste time Kashyap 43 told IANS in a noholdsbarred interview hereKashyaps coproduction Udta Punjab a movie on the drug menace in Punjab could release in India only after the Bombay High Court intervened and overruled the Central Board of Film Certifications CBFC directive to make 89 cutsNow another of the filmmakers coproductions Haraamkhor is left in the lurch for a certificate as its theme of a teacherstudent romance has been deemed unfit for the Indian marketThere are more films Sunny Deols abuseladen Mohalla Assi and Manoj Bajpayeestarrer Saat Uchakkey which is also laced with expletivesAccording to Kashyap one of the most outspoken filmmakers of his times the recent hassles on certification are a result of one mans egoHes a very strange man who hates that somebody took his power away What the court said to the censor board was that You cant cut a film and if you have a problem refuse the censor certificate So in four days he refused certificate to some films randomly including Haraamkhor and Saat UchakkeyHis ego is so big that he cant take the fact that someone took his powers away stressed the filmmaker who is acclaimed for handling dark themes deftly and had earlier hit out at Nihalani by calling him an oligarchAfter the Examining Committee suggested 89 cuts to Udta Punjab it went to the Revising Committee which scaled down the cuts to 13 Kashyap says filmmakers are now increasingly skipping going through the latter and reaching out straight to the FCATTheres no difference left The same people sit there and the same mindset follows So its a waste of time and energy Pahlajji dictates terms he said adding that he finds Nihalani intellectually incapable of the position he holdsHe is an ancient mindset Cinema has grown beyond him The world of internet has changed the way information flows People are wellinformed and they are much more mature He doesnt understand that cinema has far more responsibility now than just to entertain Kashyap said of Nihalani who has earlier produced films like Shola Aur Shabnam Aankhen and AndazKashyap hopes the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting acts upon recommendations of the Shyam Benegal Committee which has suggested a revised system of certification and abolition of censorshipMeanwhile he is happy that Udta Punjab released intact the way it was meant to in IndiaI am happy that the film has resonated well with the people especially in Punjab And when people see the movie the only thing that Im happy about is that now they can see what was being cut out They can imagine what it would have been like with the CBFCsuggested cuts he said