‘Un-freedom’ for s(h)ame-sex film in India

After the blockbuster erotica “Fifty Shades of Grey” failed to get clearance in India, another film, ‘Un-freedom’, portraying homosexuality, has been banned in the country that is known for one of the oldest sex manuals, Kama Sutra. The debut film by the Florida-based director Raj Amit Kumar, starring Adil Hussain and Victor Banerjee, has got into trouble with the Censor Board in India.

The 36-year-old director is fuming. The film-maker said that such a move by theCentral Board of Film Certification is like taking away the “basic human right”.

“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,” said the disappointed director.

Inspired by the Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s poem, ‘Ye Dagh Dagh Ujala’, the film is a contemporary thriller based in New York and in New Delhi.

The Censor Board officials underlined that the film had been denied a certificate by the examining committee, but later a Revising Committee (RC) had agreed to give it ‘A’ certification with cuts.

The filmmaker had approached to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) who decided to stick to the decision of the examining committee.

“However, the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) had heard the matter which set aside the RC’s decision and upheld that of the EC,” said a senior official while commenting on the reports regarding the banning of the film in India.

The film is expected to hit theatres in North America on May 29.

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