The central government come with the new draft of the bill called the chromatography amendment bill,2021, for the purpose of amending the cinematography act,1952. It gives the center the power to review the film project after the certification of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is done.

It gives the government certain powers such as revisionary power i.e. it enables re-examine of the film after it is cleared by the central board of film Certification (CBFC), it changes the age-based certification from previous categories (U, UA, and A) into further age-based groups (U/A 7+, U/A13+and U/A 16+), there is also an additional provision against piracy which was lacking in the previous bill, its violation shall be punished with imprisonment of 3 months which may be extended to 3 years and fine, and the provision of the eternal certificate it certifies the film for perpetuity, which is currently valid for 10 years.

There are also some concerns associated with the bills as it is against the view “that the government has no right to demand censorship once the board has certified a film” and it also gives the government power to re-certification which may lead to an additional layer of direct government censorship going beyond there existing powers.

With the implementation of this bill, films could be held longer for re-certification based on random objection, which may end the creativity of the artists, as the government will decide whether a film should go forward or not. In recent years it has been that there has been an indirect attempt to control filmmaking in terms of specific films or series that are targeting the behavior of certain people.

The government in his defense cites the “reasonable restrictions” places by the constitution in Article 19, which justifies excising its powers to act as the super censor of films which says that to protect the sovereignty and integrity of India government can make certain laws. When discussed in the parliamentary hearing the Ministry of I & B claimed that the bill had been misunderstood, ”The bill is been misunderstood and that the ministry had no power to censor any film” another member states that, ”the bill only allows the ministry to return the film for re-certification.”

Prashant Umrao, a standing council in the Supreme court of India called the act “another blow to the film fraternity. Many filmmakers including Kamal Haasan, Anurag Kashyap, Farhan Akhtar have already spoken up against the amendment, with the petition garnering more than 1400 votes from filmmakers around the country.

In the previous year’s India reputation on freedom of speech and expression, is not being so good, India is recorded the highest number of Internet shutdown in 2020 and there are many movies and series which criticizes the government policies and show the nature of politics in the shows which is an important part of democracy and the bill give controls to the government which can change the entire concept of the movie which made content limits, That why audience starts consuming content from outside the country.

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

If you are interested in participating in the same, do let me know.

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We also have a Facebook Group Restarter Moms for Mothers or Women who would like to rejoin their careers post a career break or women who are enterpreneurs.

We are also running a series Inspirational Women from January 2021 to March 31,2021, featuring around 1000 stories about Indian Women, who changed the world. #choosetochallenge