Jana Nayagan, Parasakthi to Saraswathi: When movies had to face uncertainty and delays at the hands of censor board

Jana Nayagan hasn't released yet owing to issues with CBFC

• South Indian filmmakers struggle with film certification issues
• Title disputes and content cuts delay movie releases
• Certification challenges impact marketing and box office earnings

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For a long time, movie producers had been mainly anxious about two things: difficulties that crop up at the last minute and not knowing how well the movie would do at the box office.

Now, filmmakers in the South Indian film business are also dealing with another difficulty that is growing more common: issues with the certification procedure.

Many filmmakers in Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam cinema have had to deal with problems with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), commonly called the censor board.

These difficulties are arising before the release, which can put the entire project in danger. These include objections about the title, modifications to the dialogues, cuts of  significant scenes, and delays in attaining certification.

More and more objections to titles

There have always been fights over movie titles, but these things are happening more often now. For example, the movie Saraswathi, which Varalaxmi Sarathkumar directed for the first time, came out recently. Just before the movie came out, the CBFC raised objection to the fact that the title included the name of the deity. The filmmakers had to modify the name of the movie to S Saraswathi.

The Malayalam movie Janaki vs. State of Kerala had a similar argument earlier. The board was anxious about using the name "Janaki," which is connected to the Hindu goddess Sita, for a woman who had been sexually assaulted in the movie. The filmmakers were able to trim it down to two and modify the title to V Janaki vs. State of Kerala after a court battle that began with requests for 96 cuts.

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Such problems have come up in other movies as well. The makers of Telugu movie Hey Bhagawan! were asked to modify its name, and it was finally issued as Hey Balwanth. Now the censor board has asked the makers of Couple Friendly, which stars Santosh Sobhan, to alter its title to Friendly Couple.

The movie had an A rating when it was out, which had already limited its audience reach. The makers refused to make the modification.

Gopi Mohan, a Telugu writer, notes that these kinds of decisions can have a huge impact on a movie's identity and how it is marketed. People generally spend a lot of time choosing the perfect title from a long list of options. Changes that happen soon before a release might make advertising harder and make things more confusing.

There are more than just titles at stake in content cuts and certification issues. The problem isn't only the title disputes. Some directors have also had trouble with some sequences or bits of dialogue.

The Malayalam movie Haal, for instance, was alleged to have had concerns with scenes depicting beef biryani and allusions of "dhwaj pranam," which the board feared could offend religious sensitivities. The filmmaker, Prasanth Vijayakumar, said he was sad because the movie was supposed to be for families and not damage anyone.

These problems have happened to even huge projects. The board gave the action flick Coolie, which stars Rajinikanth, an A rating and asked for a few cuts.

Director Lokesh Kanagaraj said he was okay with muting some words, but he didn't agree with the request for 35 cuts. He added that the rigorous certification may have lost the movie between Rs 40 crore and Rs 50 crore in potential income because fewer people could see it.

Delays in releases that affect the business

Issues with certification can also generate delays that affect everyone in the film industry. The long-awaited movie Jana Nayagan, which stars Vijay, has also been stalled in a long legal and certification procedure. Because it doesn't have a set release date, the Tamil film calendar as a whole has been disrupted, and other films have had to put back their release dates.

Parasakthi, which stars Sivakarthikeyan, also had roughly 25 changes before it got released. The filmmakers chose to go along with the suggested changes instead of putting off the movie since they had to fulfill tight deadlines during the Pongal release window.

Not everyone agrees on creative freedom

People are talking more about what the CBFC does because of these past events. The board was supposed to help people understand movies by putting them into categories, but filmmakers believe it now has greater control over what goes into movies because of the cuts and adjustments it makes.

Some directors believe that this method could restrict artistic freedom and be a terrible example for other filmmakers.

Ramesh Bala, an expert on commerce, has also remarked about how India is different from other countries. Film boards in the US typically only offer ratings and don't ask for cuts. This lets people choose for themselves if a movie is right for them.

Not many options for filmmakers

When filmmakers disagree, they usually only have two options: adopt the board's advice or take the case to court. But legal fights can go on for months, which isn't good for movies that are ready to come out.

This sometimes means that producers have to agree to adjustments to prevent costly delays when they are working on a tight schedule.

An increasing concern in South cinema

People may have thought that individual arguments were merely one-time incidents in the past, but the fact that there are more and more of them implies that something bigger is going on. More and more filmmakers in the Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam film industries are speaking out about how certification decisions are making it harder for them to do their jobs.

As the argument goes on, a lot of people in the industry think that clearer rules, greater communication, and revisions to the laws may help establish a medium ground between regulation and creative freedom. The conversations could change the kinds of stories that people see on screens in the future.