Adulation for Adulthood

Like Khan,other filmmakers are rising above the shackles of “family” films and experimenting with content to cater to adult viewers. Recently,Vishal Bhardwaj for 7 Khoon Maaf,Raj Kumar Gupta for No One Killed Jessica,Pawan Kriplani for Ragini MMS and Dibakar Banerjee for Love Sex Aur Dhokha (LSD) have actually approached the Censor Board asking for an ‘A’ certificate. Soon,we are likely to see Murder 2,Raaz 3 and The Dirty Picture also sign up for the ‘A’ stamp.

Ekta Kapoor,producer of Ragini MMS,LSD and The Dirty Picture,feels the filmmakers wish to break away. “Not every story can be a family entertainer. With scripts increasingly winning over stars,niche content has become acceptable,” she explains. Banerjee adds that often,in order to avoid the ‘A’ certificate,directors have to let go of crucial scenes. “But if they are important to the story,I’d opt for an ‘A’,” he says.

So far,the adult certification has been opposed by filmmakers because it ends up alienating a chunk of the audience. That’s the reason Luv Ranjan,the director of Pyar Ka Punchnama,opposed an ‘A’ certificate for his film and finally bagged a U/A,“Economics is at play here. The films aiming for an ‘A’ are made at a certain budget where limited audience does not affect the film’s box-office performance,” he says.

However,Abhinay Deo,the director of Delhi Belly — who made at close to Rs 27 crore — feels that with the youth being a major market,it isn’t tough to recover monies. “There is so much exposure that we have a big section of audience waiting to lap up adult content,” he says.

With the exposure,the actors — especially women — are also set to break free. Vidya Balan bagged most of the Best Actress awards of 2010 for her bold portrayal in Ishqiya. Priyanka Chopra didn’t hesitate before killing off her husbands in 7 Khoon Maaf.

The audience,actors as well as filmmakers may all seem ready but Ranjan feels that the Censor Board is yet to grow up. “Which child does not know words like ass,bitch and booze?” he says,“As of now,there is only U category for family films,U/A category where children below 15 years of age are not allowed and the ‘A’ category for adults only content. The board needs to introduce another category where those above 15 years of age are allowed since most of our viewers belong to that age group.”