TV ban on Danish Girl overturned

New Delhi: The Film Certification Appellate tribunal (FCAT) has directed the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to grant UA category certification with parental caution to English film The Danish Girl for viewing on TV channels, thereby reversing the board’s decision not to screen the film on the small screen.

The censor board had denied permission for broadcast of the film on the grounds that it was with adult content and unsuitable for television viewing. The film is a 2015 British-American biographical romantic drama film, directed by Tom Hooper. Based on a fictional novel of the same name by David Ebershoff, it is loosely inspired by the lives of Danish painters Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener. The film stars Eddie Redmayne as Elbe, one of the first known recipients of sex reassignment surgery. It won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. It was also nominated for the Bafta Award for Best British Film.

The CBFC had cleared the film for a theatrical release in January and granted it an A certificate.

Setting aside the CBFC’s refusal to allow the film on the channels, the FCAT, which is headed by Justice Manmohan Sarin, cited a Supreme Court judgment that granted recognition of gender identity to the transgender community by declaring the availability of “third gender” to them. “The travails and sufferings of the husband who struggles to find his own identity, believing that he should be a woman.  His wife empathises with him and supports him, remaining by his bed side all through during his sex reassignment surgery in the 18th century,” the FCAT order said.  

However, in March, the Board refused U/UA certification to the film which is necessary for a film to be aired on TV channels. It had said the film should be viewed only by “mature adults”.