Kher promises fresh hearing for Gujarat documentaries

<div class="section0"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-size:="">MUMBAI: In a surprise move, censor board chief Anupam Kher has said that film-makers whose documentaries on the Gujarat riots were not given clearance should send their entries in again for certification.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">“I will see to it that these films are cleared as soon as possible,’’ he told TNN.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Kher denies that his stance on the controversial issue has anything to do with the fact that the BJP has been voted out of power.He maintains that his move is motivated by his belief that India is a “free and fair country’’.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Most documentary film-makers, however, reacted with skepticism when asked if they took Kher seriously. Film-maker Ramesh Pimple, whose Aakrosh was denied clearance, says that he is even considering taking Kher to court to fight out the matter.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Film-makers accuse the censor board, which has its share of political appointees, of double standards—even as Kher promises that he will speed up the procedure, Rakesh Sharma whose Final Solution is pending before the censor board, is being threatened with a show-cause notice for showing his film abroad without censor clearance.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">His film has won awards at the Hong Kong and Berlin film festivals. Ahmedabad film-maker Stalin K, who made Gujarat: A Work In Progress, points out that Gujarat is a touchy issue which no government wants to raise. “If the Congress government gives the nod to these films it will be seen as sending out a strong anti-Hindu message,’’ he says.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Sharma feels that the attitude of the board has nothing to do with the government in power but the archaic guidelines of censorship in the country. Censor board member Anjan Srivastava agrees that the guidelines need to be revised and hopes that “meaningful human interest films’’ are given a fair chance at the censor.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">The Gujarat riots generated more than ten documentaries including Shubhradeep Chakravorty’s Godhra Tak: The Terror Trail, Gauhar Raza’s Junoon Ke Badte Kadam (Madness Stalks The Land) and Gopal Menon’s He Ram. But significantly only two film-makers—Sharma and Pimple— approached the censor board. Others restricted their screenings to private shows or foreign film festivals.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Suma Josson did not submit Gujarat: A laboratory of Hindu Rashtra for censorship because her previous film on the Mumbai riots of 1992-93 Bombay’s Blood Yatra took two years before it was finally cleared without any cuts by the appellate tribunal.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Ironically, more people outside India have probably seen these documentaries than people in the country. And hardly anyone in Gujarat has viewed these documentaries.</span></div> </div>