Censor Board is at it again and this time Prakash Jha’s Lipstick Under My Burkha is under their scrutiny radar. This is not the first time that Jha’s film has been refused certification. Earlier, it was Jai Gangaajal, for which the filmmaker appealed to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) and finally receive a U/A certificate with no cuts.
CBFC is constantly in news for some reason or the other and has been criticized ‘n’ number of times for its not so acceptable reasons of either not clearing a film or giving a U/A certification. One of the examples of CBFC holding back films is Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s Haraamkhor, which got stuck with the board for 6 months.
Recently, Jha’s new production Lipstick Under My Burkha was screened for the Censor Board’s Examining Committee and the film was refused certification for a bizarre reason.
According to the Mumbai Mirror, a letter from the CBFC reads:
The story is lady oriented, their fantasy above life. There are sexual scenes, abusive words, audio pornography and a bit sensitive touch about one particular section of society, hence film refused under guidelines 1(a), 2(vii), 2(ix), 2(x), 2(xi), 2(xii) and 3(i).
Lipstick Under My Burkha
(Courtesy: YouTube)
Directed by Alankrita Shrivastava, Lipstick Under My Burkha is a story of four women, who live a secret life to explore what life has to offer and are in search of a little freedom. The movie features Konkona Sen Sharma, Ratna Pathak Shah, Aahana Kumra and Plabita Borthakur in lead roles.
When Jha was asked about the whole certification controversy, he told Mirror that such acts will only discourage filmmakers to come out with unique and true stories. He said:
As a country, we must encourage freedom of expression. Films should challenge the status quo which is what Lipstick Under My Burkha perhaps does and I believe our audience deserves to watch it.
Lipstick Under My Burkha
(Courtesy: YouTube)
In fact, Lipstick Under My Burkha has won the award for best film on Gender Equality at the Mumbai Film Festival and also won the Spirit of Asia Prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
Well, it is really disappointing to see such good films go through all this drama.
