After Udta Punjab and Great Grand Masti Leaks, Censor Board Changes its Way
Updated : July 08, 2016 02:48 PM IST
As of late, Censor Board has come under fire for a lot of things.
First, Censor Board gave unreasonable logic when it wanted to pass Udta Punjab with humongous amount of cuts. Then, the film's maker fought with Censor Board and won. And just when we all were celebrating, Udta Punjab got leaked. Upon investigation, it was found out that it was the copy sent to the Censor Board for certificate in the first place that was used for the leak.
Obviously that started a fresh round of battle and Censor Board once again came under scrutiny.
A similar story transpired with Great Grand Masti. Censor Board ordered a lot of cuts, filmmakers retaliated and won, and finally as the film prepped for release, it leaked. And once again, it was found that the Censor Board copy that was used for the leak.
So as Censor Board once again came under fire, it looked within and changed the procedure of the film submission.
It has been decided by the the Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC) to ban the submission of films on the DVD format for censor certification.
According to CBFC chairman Pahlaj Nihalani, it is not the Censor Boards's fault. He said: “We had many complaints about DVD prints marked ‘Censor Copy’ being leaked online. Firstly, the censor copy was made by the producers, not us. So, the leak could be sourced to any place from the point where the producers make copies. But we have stopped that procedure. We now watch films on the digital format. So there is no censor copy made for us.”
According to new procedure, films now have to be submitted to the CBFC on the DCP format (digital cinema projection), which is much more safter when it comes to the issue of piracy.
If Censor Board is not at any fault for the leaks, why does the pirated copies carry the "Censor Copy" watermark?
“[It's] not for us. But the Film Certificate Appellate Tribunal, known as the Tribunal, still requires a DVD copy,” informs Nihalani.