What is Cinematograph Bill 2023 and why is film industry cheering it? All you need to know

The government has cleared Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill 2023.

The Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill 2023, which was proposed in 2019, has been cleared by the government after around 15 consultations with the members of the film industry as well as the public.

A draft version of the Bill was circulated in 2021 which proposed stricter punishment against piracy and had also proposed age-appropriate ratings for films.

The Bill has been cheered by the film industry with actors including Ajay Devgn and R Madhavan terming the development as a brilliant move.

Moneycontrol deep dives into what the Bill entails and how soon it will come into effect.

When will the Bill be introduced?

The Bill will be introduced in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur told the media on April 19.

What does the Bill entail?

The Bill has provisions to curb transmission of pirated film content on the internet. It also has provisions to classify films on the basis of age group, instead of the current practice of 'U', 'A', and 'UA'.

How will the Bill curb piracy?

The Bill will not only make filming of content for piracy an offence but it will also make the act of transmitting pirated content punishable. The government has proposed to block websites that show pirated content. The Bill will likely include a penalty of Rs 10 lakh and three years of imprisonment against those who engage in piracy.

Many in the film industry pointed out that the government has gone beyond ending video recording of movies but is also focusing on online streaming of pirated content.

India is considered as the third highest contributor in terms of visits to pirated websites for content with over 7 billion visits on such sites in 2022, highlighted global advisory firm Ankura's report. It said that a lot of pirated content is available on messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram and through these apps, a lot of information is circulated on torrent apps which are not usually found on Google Play Store.

The report noted that TV content accounted for 46.6 percent of all traffic to piracy websites followed by publishing content (books) which accounted for 27.8 percent, film piracy makes up 12.4 percent followed by music and software which accounted for 7 percent and 6 percent respectively. In 2022, Spider-Man: No Way Home was the most pirated Hollywood movie in India and KGF: Chapter 2 and RRR were the most pirated Indian films. Game of Thrones was the most pirated series in India last year.

According to a 2017 KPMG report, the film industry faced an annual loss of around Rs 18,000 crore accompanied by a loss of 60,000 jobs every year.

What type of ratings the Bill proposes?

The Bill is expected to expand ratings from the current three categories of U, UA and A. U is for unrestricted public exhibition and A is restricted to adult audiences, while UA is for unrestricted public exhibition subject to parental guidance for children below the age of 12. The Bill proposes to add new age-appropriate ratings including classifications like UA-7+, UA-13+, and UA-16+ in place for 12 years.

The expansion of age ratings was suggested by the expert committee headed by veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal in 2017. Experts note that the rating expansion will allow filmmakers to address mature themes without attracting an A certificate.

While more details of the Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill 2023 are awaited, Thakur said that it will live up to the expectations of the industry.