Director Of ‘Lipstick Under My Burka’ Lashes Out On CBFC And Rightly Tells Them ‘Their Job’

Masquerading themselves as the custodian of Indian values and culture, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) sparked yet another controversy yesterday by denying certification to drama film, ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’, for being ‘lady oriented’ and containing sexual scenes, abusive language and audio pornography.

The board’s absurd reasons to deny a certificate to the movie raised a furore amongst the general public as well as the celebrities, as everyone bashed them for their unwanted censorship.

Thrashing CBFC for being selective in its judgement of women objectification, Alankrita Shrivastava, director of ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’, said,

Image Source
“In a country that reeks of patriarchy, shouldn’t we be encouraging more stories of and by women? The CBFC will happily pass so-called item numbers because they are for entertainment purpose; they don’t think those songs objectify women.”

 

On one hand, the film is earning praises at International film festivals while on the other, it is struggling to get a certificate in India. Calling out the irony, Alankrita said,

Image Source

“It is ironic that the film is being celebrated all over the world except on home turf. It shows how petty the thought process of people running the CBFC is. Their job is to certify a film, not stop its release.”

The movie is among 10 films competing in the international category at the Glasgow Film Festival. It is also scheduled to screen at the Miami Film Festival and International Women’s Film Festival at Creteil, Paris.

 

Alankrita is still confident that she can get the certification for her movie by going to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (final authority for certification). Calling the CBFC’s decision an assault on women’s rights, she said,

Image Source

“I will approach the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal and fight till the end for my film because the decision to block its release is an assault on women’s rights.”

Dear CBFC, even if you have an objection with the content of the movie, why not just give an appropriate rating and be done with it? Why force your decisions down the throat of the general public and devoid them of quality content for petty reasons? The Indian public is intelligent enough to discriminate between the good and the bad, kindly stop acting like a bossy dictator in a democratic nation.

News Source: Mid Day and Free Press

Cover Image Source

📣 Storypick is now on Telegram! Click here to join our channel (@storypick) and never miss another great story.