CBFC justifies decision of censoring movie subtitles

MUMBAI: The Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC) on Tuesday justified its decision of censoring a movie’s subtitles, saying it was done to curb the mischief done by certain filmmakers who are prone to inserting additional words after a film is certified. The CBFC filed its affidavit in the Bombay high court in response to a petition by the Indian Motion Picture Producers Association (IMPPA), challenging the censor board’s direction to submit subtitles of a movie for censorship.

The IMPAA approached the high court in July claiming that the new rule introduced by the CBFC was arbitrary. The censor board in its affidavit said it was duty-bound to ensure that filmmakers do not insert any words or visuals after a film is duly certified. The affidavit cited examples where makers mute the cuss words when they present their films before the CBFC, but after certification, they add those words in the subtitles.

“Dubbing and subtitles constitute an integral part of a film. In this context, translation errors can sometimes result in grave prejudice,” the CBFC said.

A division bench headed by Justice R M Borde posted the petition for further hearing on August 20. According to the CBFC notice, producers have to first obtain a certificate for the film and thereafter when the sub-titling is done in a different language, they are required to go for fresh censorship.

The petition said that earlier the CBFC certification was needed only for the film and there was no requirement or practice of certification for subtitles.

The petition claimed that programmes which are freely available on the Internet and other electronic media do not require such a certification or censorship from any authority.