Our film censorship law needs amendment
Bangladeshi cinema has come a long way with independent filmmakers striving to keep up with their international counterparts. These creative individuals are now competing globally and putting Bangladesh on the map with their masterpieces. And in order to facilitate its growth, cinema halls have revamped themselves with state-of-the-art facilities for a better viewing experience. With the combination of both, movie goers have now returned to the theatres after a long time. People of all ages and classes now flock to these popular movie theatres on the weekends to get a proper movie-watching experience of current films.
Maintaining such standards in films requires a lot of open-mindedness and liberty. As a result, certain movie plots necessitate dialogue and scenes that can often be unsuitable for underage viewers. This can sometimes be the reason for embarrassment for some viewers, especially when viewed with a family consisting of elders and children. In order to save ourselves the trouble, we rely on those who have already watched the film to decide whether we'd take the children with us or not. This is because, unlike foreign films, Bangladeshi ones are not rated or graded by our censor board.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. To know whether a film is suitable for viewing for certain persons, an advance notification is required. This advance notification can be in the form of a rating system, which can help parents understand the content of the film and decide whether they would allow their children to view it. This is one of the main regulatory actions of a censor board for films in any country.
In Bangladesh, the censorship of films is regulated by the Bangladesh Film Censorship Board (BFCB), which has the responsibility of examining and certifying films for public exhibition around the country. The censor board is governed by the Censorship of Films Act, 1963. The Act has been amended once in 1972 by the president's order and again as The Censorship of Films (Amendment) Act, 2006. There is the Censorship of Films Rules 1977, which emphasises on how the certification is to be done and The Code for Censorship of Films 1985 lays down specific instructions for the Board to decide if a film is unsuitable for public exhibition or not.
Section 4(2) of the Censorship of Films Act, 1963 states that if the board, after examination of a film, considers that it is suitable for public exhibition, it shall grant a certificate to that effect to the person applying the same and cause the film to be "marked" in such manner as may be prescribed. Rule 13 of the 1977 Rules lays down the principles to be followed in examination of films. These broad principles, which are further elaborated in the 1985 Code are divided into eight headings namely Security or Law and Order, International Relations, Religious susceptibilities, Immorality or Obscenity, Bestiality, Crime, Plagiarism and Miscellaneous.
The primary law, the 1963 Act, talks about certification only on suitability but nothing specific has been mentioned regarding classification by grading of certified films. Fortunately, the 1977 Rules make a brief mention of "marks" or rating to be given by the board under specific classification while certifying a film.
According to Rule 16(6), (7) and (8) of the 1977 Rules, the "mark" or rating is given only under any of the three categories while certifying a film: Unrestricted public exhibition or a "U" certificate, restricted public exhibition to adults only or an "A" certificate, while films which are certified for public exhibition subject to excisions standing the specified portion or portions excised are marked with a "triangle" at the corner of the certificate.
However, this rule on marking is ambiguous and not elaborately expressed anywhere else. Therefore, it is not clear whether it is actually implemented. The public is not aware of these markings as these are either not clearly stated at the beginning of a film or are not visible when the certificate is displayed. No such information is available on the website of the Censor Board either so that citizens may educate themselves.
Movie ratings play a vital role in film industries in most countries. The current rating system in the US is regulated by the Classifications and Ratings Administration (CARA). There are rating letters (G, PG, PG-13, R or NC-17) which indicate the level of the film's content which is combined with a rating definition and a rating descriptor – giving a more detailed explanation of what the rating means. For example, many films state that: "some material may not be suitable for children." In India, there is an established grading system maintained religiously by their film censorship board. All films are certified and classified for their content into four categories, namely unrestricted public exhibition (U), parental guidance for children below age 12 (U/A), adult (A), or viewing by specialised groups (S).
Although it is not new, Bangladeshi movies nowadays feature some strong language and scenes not appropriate for younger age groups. Children are exposed to unexpected profanity and adult content when they are clearly not the targeted audience. This change in our films may be drastic, which is why the law is yet to be updated to accommodate it. Our film censor board has also corresponded to the change by allowing certain films to be publicly exhibited even when there is certain age restricted content in them.
In order to make a certain film be viewed without moviegoers feeling uncomfortable, prior information regarding its content needs to be disseminated. This can only be done by a simple rating system categorising content for different age groups. If Bangladesh's censorship law is amended to include strict adherence to a rating system, every certified film would have its dedicated viewers and society itself would be benefited in many ways.
Aiman R Khan is associate advocate at Rahman Law Associates & Company. Email: advarklaw@gmail.com
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