Giving revisionary powers to the Central Government after a film has been duly certified by the Board is likely to affect the 'right to free speech' as any criticism against the Government's policies or the ideology of the ruling party of the Central Government may land the film in a trouble.
HEMALATHA. P.M
‘A FILM CREATED WITH CINEMATOGRAPHY’ – HAS THE WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL FRAUD LOST A FEW STEPS.
Cinema has a very important place in today’s entertainment industry. Though it is being a part of entertainment, it is also considered to be helpful in creating awareness about societal problems among people. As an opinion of the minority, a film is known to be a work of art, and is a great means to promote art. Since film involves public participation and public opinion, regulation of the same was essential, which lead to the enactment of the Cinematograph Act.
The first Indian Cinematograph Act came into force in 1920, after the first film was released in India. After independence, the Cinematograph Act, 1952, came into force on 21st March, 1952. It was enacted with an objective to make provision for the certification of cinematograph films for exhibition and for regulating exhibitions by means of cinematographs.
An important feature of this statute is that it provides for an authority which issues film certification for the display of the films to common people. According to Section 2(bb) of the Act, certificate means the certificate granted by the board under Sec 5A of the Act.
This Act provided for the establishment of the Board of film certification, under Sec 3. Any person who wishes to present their film to common people need to make an application to the board, which will examine the film upon application and would decide if the film is capable of being shown to common people. If the board is satisfied, it would issue a film certification according to the provisions of Sec 5A of the Act. Sec 5A provides for the following certifications.
a) ‘U’ certificate – unrestricted public exhibition
b) ‘U/A’ certificate – parental guidance for children under 12 years
c) ‘A’ certificate – restricted to adults
d) ‘S’ certificate – restricted to special group of people
Any person aggrieved by any such decision of the board relating to the issuance of the certificate, could file an appeal to the film certification appellate tribunal. This Appellate tribunal was established in 1983 in accordance with the provisions of the Cinematograph Act. This tribunal served as a platform to resolve all issues with the functioning of the board of film certification.
However, this tribunal was abolished by the Tribunal Reforms (Rationalization and Continuation of services) Ordinance, 2021, since the tribunal was considered to be inefficient in performing its functions. For the past few years, the tribunal was noted to have been passing arbitrary decisions and was widely criticized for the same. Since the tribunal has been abolished, the respective High Courts will now have the powers to dispose cases relating to the decisions of the Film Certification Board.
Recently, the Cinematograph Bill, 2021 has proposed to introduce certain major changes in the Cinematograph Act and its functions. This bill is being subjected to several criticisms, most of it being against the enforcement of some provisions of the bill. The Draft Cinematograph Bill, 2021 came shortly after the film certification appellate tribunal was abolished. The bill proposes the following amendments.
a) The bill provides certain revisional powers to the central Government. Accordingly, even after a film has been certified by the Board as capable of being exhibited for public, the Central Government may direct the board to re-examine its decision, if it deems it necessary. In other words, if the Central Government thinks that there is a violation of conditions laid down under Sec 5B (1) of the Act for certification, it will have revisionary powers to ask the Board's chairman to re-examine.
b) The draft proposes to give certificates for perpetuity. Although this restriction on validity of certificate for only 10 years has been removed through executive orders, the existing provision in the Act requires to be amended to remove the stipulation such that the certificate is valid in perpetuity.
c) The draft also provides additional categories for the existing classifications of certification under Sec 5A. As per the bill films will be certified as follows:
· Category ‘U’ – unrestricted public exhibition
· Category ‘U/A’ - This requires parental guidance for children under 12. ‘U/A’ is further divided into three categories as per the age of children -- U/A 7+, U/A 13+ and U/A 16+
· Category ‘A’ – Adult films d) Film Piracy, particularly release of pirated version of films on internet, causes huge losses to the film industry and government exchequer. In most cases, illegal duplication in cinema halls is the originating point of piracy. At present, there are no enabling provisions to check film piracy in the Cinematograph Act, 1952 making it necessary to have a provision in the Act to check film piracy. Thus the draft proposes to introduce a new Section i.e., Sec 6AA which provides a penalty for film piracy. The provision states,’ “Notwithstanding any law for the time being in force, no person shall, without the written authorisation of the author, be permitted to use any audio visual recording device in a place to knowingly make or transmit or attempt to make or transmit or abet the making or transmission of a copy of a film or part thereof’. If this provision for film piracy is violated, under the proposed Sec 7(1A), an imprisonment for not less than three months and not more than three years will be granted along with a fine which shall not be less than Rupees three lakhs and may extend to 5% of the audited gross production cost.
Professionals in the film industry are completely against some of these proposed changes, mainly because of the abolishment of the Appellate Tribunal. Since the tribunal has been very helpful in expressing their opinion against the Certification Board. Moreover, the efforts made towards creating a genuine film was protected by the Appellate tribunal. Many film creators content that they could make their work a great success only because of the Appellate Tribunal. Thus abolishing it is considered a big disadvantage.
Moreover, giving revisionary powers to the Central Government after a film has been duly certified by the Board is likely to affect the 'right to free speech' as any criticism against the Government's policies or the ideology of the ruling party of the Central Government may land the film in a trouble.
Another criticism against the proposed changes is that it would create a prolonged delay in displaying the films to public since disputes relating to certification will be delayed, which would result in several losses.
But, this bill also has some positive responses. According to some, Cinema has lost its value in recent times since the quality of film industry and the films produced are not satisfactory. The films displayed do not uphold the value of film-making and thus, viewers prefer creating more meaningful cinema. Cinematography is infinite in its possibilities, much more than music or languages. Since such problems relating to films have been arising constantly in recent times, it is considered better for the Government to intervene with film certification. All said and done, it is only a matter of time before the Government curbs any genuine criticism against its policies and ideologies.
The author, Ms. HEMALATHA. P.M is our intern. She is currently pursuing her final semester at the School Of Excellence in Law, Chennai.)
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