India bans 'Un-Freedom', a film on homosexuality and liberal Muslims

New Delhi: Florida-based director Raj Amit Kumar’s debut film “Un-Freedom”, starring Adil Hussain and Victor Banerjee in key roles espousing homosexuality, has been banned in India. The 36-year-old director is the latest who has hit out at the certification process in recent times. [caption id=“attachment_2180379” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Image credit: WikiMedia Commons.[/caption] Disappointed, at being unable to get the required clearance, despite an appeal to the Appellate tribunal, the filmmaker said such move by Central Board of Film Certification is like taking away the “basic human rights”. “What I am experiencing is tyranny, hypocrisy and irony of people… I don’t feel any film should be banned in the country. You can only give strict certification and you can remove certain things or the other depending on that,” Kumar said. The film is a contemporary thriller that chronicles a lesbian love story set in New York and New Delhi and is said to be inspired by Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s poem, “Ye Dagh Dagh Ujala”. Censor board officials, emphasised that the movie had been denied a certificate by the Examining Committee (EC), but later a Revising Committee (RC) had agreed to give it ‘A’ certification with cuts. The filmmaker, they said, had then approached the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) which had upheld the decision of the Examining Committee. “For the movie ‘Unfreedom: Blemished Light’, certification had been sought. The movie was then seen by the Examining Committee (EC) which felt that the movie was not fit for certification. The film was then viewed by Revising Committee (RC), which by a majority decision, decided it could be certified A with cuts. So, to say that the CBFC has banned is not correct. “However, the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) had heard the matter which set aside the RC’s decision and upheld that of the EC,” a senior official told PTI when asked to comment on the reports regarding the banning of the film in India. The film is expected to hit North American theatres on 29 May. American erotic romance “Fifty Shades of Grey” too failed to get a clearance for its release in India from the censor board. The board is also facing the ire of Bollywood filmmakers and actors over banning a list of 28 objectionable words. PTI