As a result, movies that released in the first quarter like Badlapur, NH 10, Ek Paheli Leela, Margarita With A Straw and Hunterrr, were censored heavily. This obviously drew the ire of filmmakers. However, there was little they could do about it.
Well, today has brought good news for them.
A Board meeting chaired by Pahlaj took place at a Juhu hotel today. In a welcome move, it has been decided that the notorious cuss list will be officially withdrawn.
Said a Board member on condition of anonymity, "The meeting lasted for over 3 hours and was attended by 15 members. While Nihalani kept saying he's all for the favour of the industry, the issue of cuss list was brought strongly. After much deliberation, it was unanimously withdrawn. From now on, if there is an explicit in a scene, it will be seen in context and not just be beeped out."
An official circular will reach members of the film fraternity anytime now and a meeting is being scheduled with head honchos of production houses in the first week of September.
Of course, this doesn't mean that one enjoys complete leeway. The usage of expletives in the film will have to be justified in terms of context and situation.
Another highlight of the meeting included the approval of institutionalizing majority vote. Hollywood films like Fifty Shades of Grey and more recently, Magic Mike XXL, suffered and were refused a certificate even if 2 members disapproved of its content while 6 were in favour. The film's fate then depended on the chairperson's verdict. No more. "If out of 8, 4 or more members have no objection then the film will be issued the certificate immediately. It will be driven by majority vote and not unanimous vote like before."
Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, whose productions like NH 10 and even his directorial, Bombay Velvet, became a subject of major controversy after several scenes were chopped off on the Board's order, said, "I am genuinely very happy about this development."
Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar added, "If it's true, I welcome the decision of doing away with the cuss word list. Ideally, it should depend on the script and situation of the movie."
The Board members also decided that a 'Tatkal' system be introduced, whereby films will be certified faster. Digitisation of CBFC will also be undertaken in a tie-up with IT firm Wipro.