Aamir Khan’s Peepli [Live] may have done well at the box-office and may be India’s official entry to the Oscars. But the film has run into legal trouble because of alleged use of abusive language.
Not only Peepli [Live], several other films, including Prakash Jha’s Gangajal, Vishal Bhardwaj’s Omkara and Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen, are also caught in a legal wrangle.
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court issued notices to the producers and directors of these films on Tuesday on a petition filed by a lawyer.
Notices were also issued to the ministry of information and broadcasting, Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and its chairperson Sharmila Tagore.
The petitioner has prayed that Peepli [Live] should not be screened at the Oscars as “it is bound to undermine the honour of the nation”. The petition seeks withdrawal of the CBFC certificates granted to these films and removal of the chairperson and members of CBFC for allegedly failing to do their duty by clearing films which are against “public interest, morality and decency” as defined in the Cinematography Act of 1952.
“The court empathised with the argument that the abusive words and expletives used in these films are having a detrimental effect on society,” petitioner Ashok Pande said.
“If the producer-directors have acted irresponsibly, it is the duty of the I&B ministry and CBFC to ensure that films with such filthy language are not exhibited in public,” he said. The court has warned the I&B ministry and the authorities concerned of severe action if they failed to take corrective action in this regard, Pande told reporters.
Aamir Khan and wife Kiran Rao, producers of Peepli [Live], are among the respondents who have been asked to clarify their position on this count by October 27, when the petition comes up for hearing.
Other respondents include Anusha Rizvi, director of Peepli [Live], Prakash Jha, producer-director of Gangajal, Vishal Bhardwaj, director of Omkara, Kumar Mangat, producer of Omkara, Shekhar Kapoor, director of Bandit Queen, and Sandeep Bedi, producer of Bandit Queen.
“It is appalling that Aamir Khan even dared to screen Peepli [Live] at PM’s house… even PM did not object to the disgraceful language used in the film,” Pande said.
The petition objects to the use of “abusive language to mothers, sisters, daughters” in these and several other films. It invokes section 5-B of the Cinematography Act, 1952, which enjoins upon the censor board to refuse certificates for public exhibition to films which use abusive language. “The expletives used in films such as Bandit Queen are unprintable and thus not proper to mention in the petition,” Pande said.
He has contended that the trend was started in recent times by Bandit Queen.
The censor board’s failure to check use of abusive language in the film, he says, “encouraged” other producers/directors to freely use expletives of the worst kind in films such as Omkara, Gangajal and Peepli [Live].
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