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EXCLUSIVE: Lipstick Under My Burkha's director Alankrita Shrivastava reacts to CBFC former chief Pahlaj Nihalani being sacked
Lipstick Under My Burkha's director Alankrita Shrivastava expresses her views on CBFC former chief Pahlaj Nihalani being ousted.
Central Board of Film Certification's former Chief Pahlaj Nihalani and director Alankrita Shrivastava's feud over the certification of her film Lipstick Under My Burkha has been one of the major highlights of 2017 till now. CBFC earlier refused to clear the movie citing it to be 'too lady oriented'.
Lipstick Under My Burkha is a story of four women who are in pursuit of freedom. Director Alankrita had to battle for the film to finally hit the theatres. Now, that we all know that Pahlaj Nihalani has been sacked as CBFC chief and lyricist-poet-writer Prasoon Joshi has taken the charge, we got in touch with Alankrita to know her views on this.
She told us, "I feel that Censorship has to change at a standard level. As a temporary relief, this is fine but we need not have censorship in a free and democratic country. We have to move to a system of classification as we can't depend on how that one person as CBFC chief could be. We have to have a system that ensures that there is no interference. It's sort of a temporary relief and this is not a long lasting solution. We have to start amending the act. Just changing the person wouldn't benefit much as we can't sit back and say and everything will be OK until and unless the system is changed."
We also had a conversation with Pahlaj Nihalani himself on the whole fiasco of him being sacked. He said, "I didn't know about it. When I got the charge back then also I got to know through media and now that someone else has been appointed- this also I am getting to know through media. I have nothing to say and I respect Indian government's orders."
He added, "I am not at all upset with it. 98% of the film industry was happy with my work, it was just 2% that are unhappy. But I wish them all the best. And har kisi ke kaam mein ache aur bure ki pehchaan hoti hai (everyone gets criticized and praised for their work). Let them enjoy and wish all those producers who think I haven't done good job. There has been no direct communication with me at all. Nothing is my hand, it is government's decision. I didn't come here to be permanent. Whatever the responsibilities they gave me, I did it with all sincerity and entirety. My staff has supported me and CBFC became corruption free and online certification also became transparent (under my leadership)."
He further said, "I have recommended it earlier too that we should have a fixed rating scale. Government hasn't done anything new. If they wanted to do something, they would have listened to my request. I have adopted the rule book that they gave me and the name is Censor Board of Film Certification. My team members and me followed it. Previous members didn't follow it. I have implemented it."
Do you agree with Alankrita's views on censorship? Tell us in the comments below!
