Making sense of censorship

Stats first: The BO has seen 10 major releases with ‘A’ certification till the last Friday of 2011. In the same period of time in 2010, there had been only three film releases with ‘A’ certification.
If you’re a regular film-goer, the stats will confirm the suspicion that every other film to hit the screens these days has certified adult content. Despite the brouhaha by filmmakers every time their film is awarded an ‘A’ certificate by the Censor Board, the audiences seem to be growing less wary of such ratings.While “No One Killed Jessica” was a Box Office hit at the start of the year, “Dum Maaro Dum”, which released in April, didn’t fare too badly either. So do audiences still care for Censor ratings?
Censors And Audience Sensibilities
Apparently not, if filmmaker Sudhir Mishra is to believed. “An ‘A’ certificate doesn’t influence audiences anymore, because no one knows why the Censor Boards awards an adult rating to one film and a ‘U’ certificate to another. A film which shows gruesome violence will be allowed as ‘U/A’, but one with expletives that every 14-year-old has heard and uses is given an adult certificate,” he complains. While his film “Yeh Saali Zindagi” was given an ‘A’ rating by the Censor Board, it did well enough at the Box Office. However, Mishra adds, “The films which have done well despite an A certificate could have done better without it.”
Film critic Taran Adarsh believes that an A-rated film does suffer at the BO. “But filmmakers prefer to go with an ‘A’ certificate rather than make cuts in the film,” he says, adding, “‘A’ rated films lose out on a huge chunk of their audience in centres where multiplexes are strict about not allowing entry to those under 18.”
Age No Bar In Lucknow Theatres
While in metros, the multiplexes are apparently concerned about enforcing the rating on the audience, in tier-two cities like Lucknow, there are no checks on whether an under-18 audience is watching a film meant for adults only.
According to Rishi Gupta, cinema manager at Wave Cinemas, it’s difficult to monitor too strictly who’s watching a film. Says he, “If someone buys five tickets from us, we have no way of knowing whether he’s bought tickets for under-18 viewers. When we see people coming to watch a film with their family, we suggest that a particular film may not be intended for family viewing, but audiences don’t really care.”
Not everyone is as forthcoming as Gupta. And managers at other multiplexes in the city claim they ensure children don’t end up among the audience for a film with an ‘A’ certificate. However, cinema-goers in the city know that’s far from the truth. Says Akashdeep, a movie buff, “It’s normal for children to be present with their parents at the screening of films like “Dum Maaro Dum”, which are A-rated. But since films are considered family entertainment, not even parents seem to mind it!”