Crew alleges denial of censor certificate to film

Thiruvananthapuram: The cast and crew of upcoming Malayalam film ‘Chilappol Penkutty’ have come up with the allegation that the regional censor board denied censor certificate due to the references related to Kathua rape incident in the movie.

The team initially faced a delay of six months in getting no objection certificate from animal welfare board at Faridabad. The trailer of the movie was denied censor certificate due to the references of Kathua incident and it was forwarded to a reverse panel in Mumbai. Three months later, Chennai censor board directed its counterpart in Thiruvananthapuram to take a call after watching the entire movie. Eventually a screening was held a few days ago but the regional board denied certification.

Suneesh Chunakkara, producer of the movie, said the only ‘mistake’ they did was portraying the life of Asifa, the rape victim. “Our movie does not touch up on politics or communalism. Asifa has been conceived as an angel named Alifa in the movie and the movie is a reminder of the gruesome incident. It is disheartening to learn that the censorship panel comprising three women, actress Chippy, dubbing artist Bhagyalakshmi and regional censor officer Parvathy V, arrived at the decision,” he said.

According to director Prasad Nooranad, the denial mounted to violation of a filmmaker’s freedom of expression. “We raised protest against sexual abuses on women and children through the movie and for that we are facing obstacles one after the other. We believe that there is a strong political motive behind all this,” he said. The crew has now filed a complaint with chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and cultural affairs minister A K Balan with a request to intervene to clear the deadlock.