•Jagmeeta Thind Joy: You have been the chief of Central Board of Film Certification. What’s your stand now, especially with respect to television?

When I was appointed chief of the Censor Board, the first thing I did was to read all its laws. It was then that I found out that every film can be banned and every film can be released! One is totally dependent on his or her interpretation of the rules and I had to decide on the basis of my opinion. In the process, I discovered that television too required censorship. I’ve always fought for it and raised the need for a parental lock on the TV set. I guess I spoke too vehemently and became quite unpopular with elite journalists because the fodder for their stories was being killed. I believe that till we are 100 or even 90 per cent literate, we need to enforce censorship laws. Television today has violence, sexual content, and more than that, television news is frightening. There is breaking news every 10 minutes and what’s worse, it’s always something negative. Unconsciously, through this, we are creating a world that’s terrifying, fearsome. News is constantly hinting at the belief that the world is not a safe place to live in. Then there are marketing gimmicks, news that makes us feel like under-achievers. With films you have the choice of not watching; with television, it’s on most of the day.

Unfortunately, the nuclear family has children with too many questions and nobody to answer them. I remember we lived in this huge joint family and there was always someone to answer my question. Today, children are finding their answers on their own, which may or may not be true. This is scary and that’s why we need censorship. Law books on censorship need to be revisited and timings for adult programmes or harmful content should be changed.

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