The interplay between Cinema and the Indian Legal system plays out in numerous interesting ways; cinema makers and cinema-goers routinely find themselves at the crossroads between the two. Cinema censorship in India is the only medium where the state exercises pre-censorship on thousands of films released throughout India in numerous languages. The censorship regime in postcolonial India has its roots in the colonial administration, which was wary of the medium as it found it to be highly influential among the impressionable masses. Colonial anxieties manifested themselves in strict censorship laws regarding Cinema, as it was believed that cinema gave access to colonized people into the lives of the colonizers; it was also felt that cinema could become a medium where ideals of independence might find an outlet. Colonizers’ outlook towards the colonized as subjects to be controlled has, interestingly, found an outlet in post-colonial censorship laws, which still infantilize cinema-goers, denying them the autonomy to judge what is best for them. The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) routinely denies certification and release to many films across languages, often demanding numerous cuts. Any film rooted in a social or political context is treated with circumspection by the CBFC and finds itself in troubled waters. While uploading pre-censorship in Cinema, the judiciary has interpreted strict censorship laws in myriad and often conflicting ways.
Nalin M. Kumar (Fri,) studied this question.