The Andhra Pradesh government has suspended the exhibition of Hindi feature film “Aarakshan” starring Amitabh Bachchan, initially for one week or till a final decision was taken on the report of a five-member committee constituted for the purpose.
Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy took this decision following representations that the exhibition of the film was likely to hurt the feelings of weaker sections, leading to protests and agitations and thus cause a breach of peace and tranquillity.
An order was immediately issued by the Home Department here on Thursday under Section 8 of the A.P. Cinemas (Regulation) Act, 1955, suspending the screening of the film. Several organisations of the Scheduled Castes, Tribes and Backward Classes had complained that the film contained content that would hurt their members.
The decision to suspend the screening was taken based on the initial report submitted by Commissioner for Information & Public Relations B. Venkatesham following these complaints.
Keywords: Aarakshan controversy
Cinema is a mass media,where the efforts of all community people are extracted for making and also for viewing. Hence, in cinema, no one should hurt the feelings of any community or religion. Even the characters in the movies should not be named after any community. Appreciating some community by calling Gounder(Chinna Gounder) or Thevar(Thevar Magan), and making scheduled caste people and menial workers always as comedians(Vadivelu as naai sekar) and insulting Brahmin community(Sethu) should not be allowed by Censor officials. The censor board should consists of all community people. Cinema message is always registered in the mind of all the viewers.It should preach only morality and discipline.
dissolve censor board. make it compulsory to first show to political parties and self appointed Representative of the religion/caste groups, before the release of any film. this is the total failure of the governance.
The freedom of speech as enshrined in the constitution is being eroded by politicians who cannot see beyond the tip of their noses. The people who could be the subject in the movie will welcome the opportunity to show case their issues. The politicians on the other hand use this as an opportunity to whip up sentiments and create chaos. Prakash Jha is a very responsible film maker and his films did mirror the real life of people (Apaharan for example). The media and the film fraternity should jointly fight the menace created by the politicians.
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