Abolition of Film Certification Appellate Tribunal leaves film industry puzzled, anxious

Abolition of the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) by the Government of India final week — below the Tribunal Reforms Ordinance, 2021 — got here as a bolt out of the blue for stakeholders in Indian cinema. Based in New Delhi, the FCAT was the place disgruntled filmmakers walked into as a penultimate resort to problem edits instructed to their movies by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

National Award-winning filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj set in movement the outpouring of grief with this tweet on April 6, the day the information of FCAT’s abolition crept out: “Such a sad day for cinema.”

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Plunging into disaster

FCAT is just one of many tribunals within the nation that had been both abolished or amalgamated below the Ordinance.

Legal specialists observe that “tribunals hadn’t been functioning well” since their administration was depending on a nodal company — a Ministry below the Government. “Most tribunals don’t fill up vacancies… not only of the judicial and technical members, but also the staff. They also have a problem of finding good people to take up posts as tribunal members as most lawyers want to become High Court judges,” says Krishna Ravindran, advocate practising on the Madras High Court.

However, the difficulty with FCAT’s abolition is exclusive in that it plunges an industry already at battle with an company that acts because the ‘Censor Board’ right into a deeper disaster; it particularly stands to have an effect on the smaller filmmakers.

Take for example, C Ilamaran — extra well-liked to YouTube viewers as ‘Blue Sattai’ Maran. His debut film, Anti Indian, was lately refused certification by the Examining Committee (EC) of the CBFC; he has now forwarded his case to the CBFC’s Revising Committee (RC). Earlier, if a filmmaker fails to clear the EC and RC hurdles, the FCAT was the subsequent step of recourse, however that’s now not the case.

“FCAT only charged a nominal fee to hold the screening for its members, and it would pass its judgement immediately. Now if I have to go to the High Court, I need to spend lakhs of rupees to get a good lawyer and several hearings have to happen to present arguments, before a judgement comes through. I will never know when my film will release in this scenario,” says Maran.

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta too shared this thought in a tweet final week. He wrote: “Do the high courts have a lot of time to address film certification grievances? How many film producers will have the means to approach the courts? The FCAT discontinuation feels arbitrary and is definitely restrictive.”

Fighting the system

Indie filmmakers like Leena Manimekalai needed to battle a restrictive environment on the CBFC to get their content material out in public, and the company that helped her was the FCAT. Says Leena, “My first film Sengadal, The Deadsea was banned and my second film Maadathy, An Unfair Tale was refused certification by CBFC. Without FCAT’s intervention, I wouldn’t have won the legal battle and brought out my films without a single cut.”

FCAT’s panel, as Leena provides, is predominantly made up of members not from a judiciary background, however from industry veterans who arrive at a judgement after balancing each CBFC and the filmmaker’s factors of view. “Most of CBFC’s decisions were overruled by the Tribunal and that has reassured constitutional rights under Article 19 to filmmakers to express freely. Now we are expected to approach courts. How many independent filmmakers like me will have the means to approach the courts?” she asks.

Leena Manimekalai
 
| Photo Credit: RAGESH K

A extra pertinent query, as Krishna asks, can be: Can courts take a name on whether or not or to not overturn the CBFC’s options? “Some judges don’t even watch movies. A judge will only look at the issue from a legal perspective, not whether a particular edit will constrict the flow of the movie,” he says.

Re-classifying certification

It is to keep away from such points that the Government constituted The Shyam Benegal Committee in January 2016. The committee really helpful rules for film certification — a transfer away from the present follow adopted by CBFC, and submitted its report in April 2016; however the file is now gathering mud.

“Classification of films is all that the Government should do [and not censoring],” says Krishna, including, “If somebody is aggrieved, then let that individual report a complaint to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Otherwise, let there be freedom of expression; artistic freedom is a must for us to evolve as a society.”

Filmmaker Raju Murugan bemoans that this evolution, sadly, isn’t allowed to occur. “Gagging happens via CBFC and indirectly too. If you take your content to OTT platforms, well… these are corporate firms and they need to keep businesses afloat, so there is arm twisting there as well. There is now a situation where expressing ideologies on screen is not permitted. You can talk about general issues — like save farming, save the environment, or even corruption in regional politics, but stepping into ideology is a no-no,” he says.

His Tamil film Gypsy starring Jiiva bumped into bother with CBFC, and after the RC’s suggestions, it was launched with a number of cuts. “I opted not to go to the Tribunal because I was hard pressed for time. That is the thing when you make films on contemporary subjects… it has to come out at the appropriate time. I am a firm believer of our judicial system, but without FCAT, when filmmakers go to courts… it may take six months to a year or more before a film is allowed to release,” provides Raju Murugan.

According to many, a revamp of the certification system that doesn’t require censoring or cuts is the necessity of the hour. “If the CBFC’s mandate was well defined, then you probably won’t need another body like the FCAT on top of it to address disputes. Things would be a lot simpler,” says film producer Sameer Bharat Ram.

Following the information of FCAT’s abolition, Varun Grover, the lyricist and standup comic, tweeted: “Absolutely delighted to know about the scrapping of FCAT. Next logical step, scrap CBFC.”