Chairman of Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy Suneel Puranik said on Saturday that if the contents of cinema being streamed via Over The Top (OTT) platforms went unchecked it might require invoking the provisions of censorship on such movies.
Speaking on ‘exploring the Indian identity through cinema’ at the third edition of Mangalore Lit Fest organised by the Mangaluru Literary Foundation, he said that only a handful of persons now produced cinema for OTT platform. A close observation revealed that they are being produced with a “hidden agenda” and they are “one-sided”.
They could certainly influence some among the audience who are weak minded. Many of the movies do not bother about Indian identity and are a threat to the Indian identity, he said.
Cine actor Suchendra Prasad said the objective of many such cinema is nothing but only commercial. Screen writer and director Abhishek Iyengar said that many movies streamed via OTT platforms were “judgmental and one-sided”. “There is a need for ethical censorship,” he said.
Mr. Puranik said there was a need for investors to produce more films on the Indian identity.
At the same time, he said that films portraying Indian identify, both puranik and historic, are coming to the forefront in the recent years. “Distorted version of the history was projected and shown for about 70 years thus misguiding the younger generation,” he said.
But the present generation checks the reality through the modern IT tools, he said.
Commenting on the trend of portraying Indian identity as “regressive”, Mr. Iyengar said the factor of “cool to abuse” can reduce when just as in European countries writing cinema is given due importance.
Cinema must be seen from the perspective of education and cinema should be a propaganda, he said.
