Rough Cut

“Have you watched Ghajini? It’s the action in it which catapulted it to success. Now,catch the same flick on television,and you’ll never know how Kalpana dies. Why? Because someone found it objectionable,and cut the scene!” software professional Aniruddh Chaudhary is disappointed,especially the way television is dealing with censorship. Pick any – Ghulam,Sex and the City,Scary Movie,Border,and you’ll make out the missing parts. Instead of banning run-of-the-mill programming,checking questionable content that’s making its way through reality shows and some news channels,censor scissorhands snips parts of programmes and films,Hindi and English,which they consider are not ‘suitable for family viewing’. To make matters worse,subtitles belittle the original dialogue. “Sex is sleeping,then there is a new term called bullcrap,any four letter abuse is translated as ‘bad word’…it’s hilarious especially when you can hear the correct word on screen!” Aniruddh,and many more disgruntled viewers like him are resisting this gnawing change on the Indian telly,especially in the last year. “From a simple fight scene to a kiss,random cuts spoil the viewer experience. It makes the whole process jerky,leaving the clueless viewer filling in the blanks!” says independent television producer Manan Modi,who feels that this is one of the reasons piracy and illegal digital downloads flourish. “It’s ironic how they mindlessly cut a piece of art but miss the double meaning in a joke on comedy circus,” he wonders.

Deep down,we are shallow. We love to peep and poke into other’s lives and business,and indulge in bit of voyeurism. But when it’s flashed on the TV,moral police comes crashing down. “At the end of the day,it’s all about eyeballs,the Indian culture,TRP,and family viewing. Your movie premiere on TV has to make money,and in all this real programming gets affected,” adds Manan. For Channel V’s Rajiv Ram the reason is simple – censorship stems from fear,and no one wants to deal with the wrath of moral police – the ‘anti-social goondas’ who’ll break in their studios and offices. “Sach Ka Saamna was one Hindi show that attracted flak for it went against the Indian culture. But the court ruled against it,said it was the participant’s choice to reveal,and so,let the show go on!” points out Star Movies GM,Jyotsna Viriyala,who feels that while everyone comes cracking down on ‘western content’,no one’s watching the Hindi space closely. “Every channel has a standards and practices body. Every piece of content that goes on air has to have regulation. Excessive nudity,blood,violence,objectionable dialogue,however evolved it is,will come under the axe. We are not the west,but our content is imported,and 80 per cent of the janta still gets affected because we have different cultures,socio economic backgrounds,upbringing et al. We try and retain the essence,but steer clear of danger zone – we don’t want the government to say that we let you bring Hollywood,and look how it has spoilt the Indian culture!” she adds.

Look Westwards,and in the US,television programming comes with a certification,India still needs to work on it. “There is no regulation,no planning,only mindless rules and different standards and practices based on internal decisions. What we need is one rulebook,one body which is not as archaic and jaded as Central Board of Film Certification,” shoots one of the strong voices on Indian telly who has always been after careless censorship and demanded a streamlined process,Vinta Nanda.

UTV’s Heather Gupta’s of the view that censors are in place to ensure that standards of respectability and decency are maintained but they should not dumb programming content down too far. The show,the kind of abuse,target audience,all this matters,but Heather while believes that “completely gratuitous scenes are always necessary,at the same time we should not tone down the viewer experience too much.” “We need guidelines that at least prepares the viewer for the content for too much censorship will encourage piracy and internet downloading for sure. Who wants to watch an English movie in India,for example,where all the ‘interesting’ scenes have been cut out. Might as well wait for the DVD!”

It’s a fine line,we agree. But if the argument for cuts is that television is watched by family,then why not check the reality shows? “Reality shows are more often watched by a youth target,at least on channels like Bindass and this audience demands more ‘reality’ which is as real as it gets,not censored and unreal,” Heather tries to convince us. “Reality TV is edgy,and it talks to youth in their language,” argues Rajiv.

It’s okay to have leaders as sex offenders,but it’s not okay to show an act of love on television. It’s okay to beat up people because they are from different state,but not okay to show how religion and regionalism disgraces humanity. It’s okay to flash scenes of girls under a shower all day on a news channel,but not okay to air it otherwise. It’s okay for Indian telly saas-bahu to indulge in fights,extra marital relations,multiple marriages,but not okay to come out with the truth. The diktat of divide and rule on reality shows along with choicest of abuses even if the same are beeped out. Women are conniving,plotting,scheming,it’s vamp power! There is a sudden rise of the feudal lord…why isn’t this checked? This is not Indian culture! “But you are missing the point,” interrupts Mamta from Star Plus. “You and I form 20 per cent of the viewing population,this is for the 80 per cent.”

“If only the 80 per cent knew how it affects them! Nobody seems to be measuring the impact before putting a programme on television,Nobody is really watching,” Vinta has the final word.