Film producers’ guild moves court against censor board

CHENNAI: Noting that at least 40 ready-to-release Tamil films were stuck, the Film and Television Producers’ Guild of South India (FTPGSI) has approached the Madras high court after the regional director of the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC) refused to process the films referred through the guild.
In a letter to the guild, CBFC regional director V Packirisamy said the board would not accept the title registration and publicity clearance certificate (PCC) signed by the present office-bearers of the Guild as a verdict filed in a city civil court by a group of former office bearers saying they were the real office-bearers of the guild was awaited.
Giridarlal L Nagpal, S Devarajan Gunasekaran and Simmam Raghu, had in their petition to the civil court, claimed that they were still office-bearers of the guild and that they had expelled a few of the present office-bearers.
When contacted, Packirisamy said his office had temporarily stopped issuing clearance for the movies referred by the two factions as there could not be two claimants for one association. “We are waiting for the court’s final verdict. Both the factions are referring movies to the censor board. We cannot entertain both teams,” he added.
Due to the ongoing feud between the two groups, at least 40 films have piled up before the censor board. Now T Aadhiram, a secretary, has approached the high court, saying, “a central government agency intruding into the matters of a regional association cannot be accepted.” Members of the Guild have been forced to approach the Film Chamber of Commerce and Tamil Film Producers’ Council to help get censor board clearance for their movies, he said.
“A restriction has been forced on our functioning,” an office-bearer of the guild, Jaguar Thangam, said.
At an emergency meeting convened in Vadapalani on October 12, the present group of office-bearers expelled a group of former officials. Later, they moved the Madras HC seeking a permanent injunction to restrain the expelled members from trespassing into the building premises of the guild in T Nagar.
Sources said every newly produced film is sent to an association which, after scrutiny, issues a publicity clearance certificate and a registration title before referring the movie to the regional office of the CBFC.
CBFC regional director Packirisamy said they had temporarily stopped issuing clearance for movies as two different factions of the Guild were referring movies.