In the mid-1920s, The Volga Boatman , an American silent film produced and directed by the legendary Cecil B. DeMille was refused certification and prohibited from being screened in India by the Bombay Board of Film Censors for its unrelentingly negative portrayal of the October 1917 Revolution in Russia.
DeMille’s film, which made American actor William Boyd an overnight star, was refused clearance on the grounds that it portrayed the revolution as full of class-hatred, violence, degrading lust and brutality.
This nugget, and many more, pertaining to films across the globe and the early era of India’s nascent film industry are now available online, with the National Film Archives of India (NFAI) digitising old censor records of films released between the 1920s and the 1950s — the Golden Age of world cinema.
“The Censor records in our NFAI vaults run up to 2,500 pages and contain fascinating nuggets about the films and the problems some of them encountered with the Censor board. They can act as a valuable historical record for aficionados of world cinema and the early age of the Indian film industry,” Prakash Magdum, Director, NFAI, told The Hindu .
These records, published as Bombay and Bengal Government Gazettes from 1920 to 1950, give information on the name of the film examined, number of reels, length of film, name of company or person producing the film, country of origin and endorsement particulars, among other details.
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The records detail an incident involving another famous silent film, the 1924 historical drama titled Poona Raided , made by Deccan Pictures Corporation and directed by the renowned playwright B.V. Varerkar.
In this film, which details King Shivaji’s lightning raid on Poona to dislodge the occupancy of Mughal Commander Shaista Khan, a particular scene was cut and then passed by the then Bombay Board of Film Censors.
According to film historians, the Censor board probably considered the scene in Poona Raided , in which Shaista Khan pays obeisance to the crescent moon which then morphs into King Shivaji, as an anti-imperialist metaphor (with Shaista Khan standing in for the British conquerors and Shivaji as the deliverer), drawing parallels with the struggle for India’s Independence.
According to the Censor records available with the NFAI, Poona Raided was certified on 15 August, 1924, with a recommendation to cut the scene in reel number 7. “Such priceless pieces of information can be of inestimable value to researchers and film historians. Hence, our objective to digitise these records and put them up online,” Mr. Magdum said.
