Ram Gopal Varma: Censor should be banned

Chennai, July 15 (IANS) Stating that censoring films was actually an insult to audiences, well known film director Ram Gopal Varma on Wednesday called for a ban on censorship.

Taking to his X timeline to pen his thoughts on why he thought censorship was unnecessary, Ram Gopal Varma said, “Censoring films actually is an insult to the audiences. In an era of smartphones, global streaming, and access to infinite information, to pretend that a government appointed committee (What is the qualification of its members ?) can shield adults from the film makers’ perspective of any truth is not only outdated, but it’s also idiotic.”

He went on to say, “Here’s the fundamental hypocrisy… If an adult is mature enough to vote for the leader of the country, raise families, run businesses, why the hell can’t they decide for themselves what to watch?”

Pointing out that while on the one hand, the government was trusting adults with the ballot, which shapes the future of more than a billion people, it was at on the other hand, thinking that a scene in a film might spoil them.

“That’s not safeguarding society but infantilizing it…,” the director observed and went on to add, “An 18-year-old can choose the leader, but needs some random committee member to decide if hearing a cuss word or watching a shot is corruptive.”

Stating that a movie was dramatic storytelling from the perspective of a film maker and that it was the viewers prerogative to agree or disagree, Ram Gopal Varma said, “Cutting a scene for theatrical release is laughable because the uncut version will hits torrents, Telegram, and all international platforms within hours.”

“Case in point is the head banging scene in OBSESSION which after the censors cut it, must have been seen by 10 times more people on Insta reels than who actually watched the film in the theatres,” he said.

Claiming that censorship doesn’t hide content but that it actually creates more demand, Ram Gopal Varma said, in times of AI tools and borderless Internet, gatekeeping was a joke.

“Forcing trims on language, sensuality, violence, or ideology turns cinema into a dishonest and hypocritical slop. When everyone including children can binge watch brutal news and unlimited online extremes, how come only cinematic moments trigger bans?,” he asked.

Censorship wasn’t about protecting values because cinema’s s job was also to reflect one’s perception of an issue, which is what created debate, the foundation of democracy, he said and added that censor ship primarily assumed that adults were children who needed to be parented by some government appointed committees.

“It’s not cuts what we need, but it’s to be clear what the film contains , and then have respect for the audience to decide for themselves to watch or not,” he said.

“I think all producers and directors should stop crawling on their knees before a non-thinking, uncreative agenda oriented bureaucracy that understands neither art nor audiences while they give arbitrary cuts,” he opined.

Stating that every time the industry accepted cuts, negotiated “compromises,” or did self censoring to avoid trouble, Ram Gopal Varma said they emboldened those so-called gatekeepers and weakened the entire ecosystem by making the entire industry a soft target.

“I think it’s time for the industry to come together to challenge the very existence of the censor board in its present form, both in courts and public discourses. Democracy demands free expression and in a connected world, isolating and mutilating cinema is not just being blind and deaf … it is actually suicidal for our growth. #BanTheCensor,” he wrote.

–IANS

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