New Delhi: April 27: To lay down a holistic framework for certification of films, a Committee was set up under the Chairmanship of Shyam Benegal to lay down norms for film certification that take note of best practices in various parts of the world and give sufficient and adequate space for artistic and creative expression, lay down procedures and guidelines for the benefit of the CBFC Board to follow and examine staffing patterns with a view to recommending a framework that would provide efficient and transparent user friendly services.
The Committee submitted major part of their recommendation to Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting Arun Jaitly today.
The report recommends making CBFC only a film certification body whose scope should be restricted to categorising the suitability of the film to audience groups on the basis of age and maturity. The CBFC can refuse for certification when a film contains anything that contravenes the provisions of Section 5B (1) of the Cinematograph Act, 1952 and When content in a film crosses the ceiling laid down in the highest category of certification. It said, the applicant must specify the category of certification being sought and target audience.
Regarding the categorisation of films, the committee recommends that it should be more specific and apart from U category, the UA Category can be broken up into further sub-categories – UA12+ & UA15+. The A category should also be sub-divided into A and AC (Adult with Caution) categories.
The Certification of films shall be carried out in accordance with the Guidelines proposed for certification that have been split into three sections, with each section required to be read with the other two – General Guidelines, Issue Related Guidelines and Category Specific Guidelines.
Besides, the Committee has made certain recommendations regarding the functioning of the board, Criteria to appoint Regional Advisory Panel and many other issues like recertification for television, Permission regarding out-of-turn certifications etc.
Notably, other members of the Committee are Kamal Hassan, i Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra, Piyush Pandey, Goutam Ghose, Bhawana Somaaya, Nina Lath Gupta, MD, NFDC and K. Sanjay Murthy, Joint Secretary (Films) as Member-Convenor.
The Committee will give their complete recommendations by 20th June, 2016.
