Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who has had a history of run-ins with the censor board, said, "Though the monitoring body of late has been quite lenient, we can very well do away with it."
"Of late, the censor board is adopting a very lenient outlook towards movies. Or else, it would have been difficult to get a movie like Dev.D released," Kashyap, who was here at the Mumbai Film Festival, said.
"However, it is better if one does away with the board completely or else the freedom of a filmmaker becomes very limited," he added.
"A director like me has to think a lot as to how far I can push the envelope. The constraints have to be taken into consideration or else the movie may court trouble with the censors," he said.
The 37-year-old director, known for movies like Gulal and Black Friday said directors today need to raise issues and hold a mirror to society.
Drawing a parallel, he said, while a movie like The Death Of George Bush could be made in Hollywood even when the former president was alive, he would not be in a position to make a movie on MNS chief Raj Thackeray here.
"Even discussing the issue may land a filmmaker in trouble," Kashyap said.
The critically acclaimed director pointed out that cinema in smaller countries is still considered an art and not as a means to mint money.
"Movies from such places are taken more seriously at international forays while, in India, cinema has manifested itself into a big industry today," he said.
Comments
