The National Award winning filmmaker Suman Gosh is now planning to release his censorship controversial documentary based on Nobel prize honoured Amartya Sen in a couple of months. The documentary also includes four words that Indian censor board has objected. Recently the CBFC Central Board of Film Certification officials seeks to mute four words the “cow”, “Gujarat”, “Hindu India” and “Hindutva” by Amartya Sen and they asked Suman Gosh to mute those words. The Argumentative Indian was originally scheduled to release on July 14 but it was refused the green signal by the censor board of India over the use of words like “cow”, “Gujarat”, “Hindu India” and “Hindutva” and asked Gosh to mute these words from Amartya Sen’s interview.
While giving an interview to IANS Suman Gosh said that “I will do that (release the film online). I have some screenings organised abroad so I can’t release it before that. It will take a couple of months. It will be there in its entirety,”. Although on Friday Suman Gosh has released a link to a 141-second trailer of the Documentary on his Facebook page. While it was posted on youtube earlier in July. However, it is being reported that CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani has termed the trailer post “illegal”. The filmmaker said “I have to find out though… if he (Nihalani) is objecting to the trailer… whether a new law has been created in India where online content also has to be certified, so I have to find those out. But definitely, I can release it all over the world,”. He further added that “the trailer was prepared much in advance before the documentary came under the censor’s scanner”. Suman Gosh’s features will be screening in prestigious film fests like Busan, Karlovy Vary and London etc.
According to IANS report, while asking about the censor board’s reaction to the trailer Suman Gosh said “I saw that (media report on Nihalani terming the trailer illegal)… I don’t know why. I made six feature films and I know a lot of filmmakers.. all of them said that on YouTube, one need not necessarily certify. If I play the trailer on TV or in theatres, then I need a censor certificate.” Recently the Indian censor board has stoked controversy by recommending a whopping 12 cuts in Madhur Bhandarkar’s forthcoming “Indu Sarkar” and also by removing scenes from the upcoming movies like “Lipstick Under My Burkha” and “Jab Harry Met Sejal”.
