Imran Khan: “Censorship has reached a scary place”

Observing that film producers are fighting battles with the censor board every day, Bollywood actor Imran Khan said film censorship has reached a very scary place in India.

“Censorship is reaching quite a scary place. Particularly in the past few years, I have been feeling, as someone who works in the theatre field that it is getting more and more restrictive to the point that you are afraid of what can we show, what can we talk about,” Imran told Indian students at the Harvard University here.

“This is a battle that we have fought on every single film. Every films we had the most insane battles… It is insane. It is restrictive. It is regressive. And very frankly, it is getting worse.”

The 33-year-old actor said his 2011 black comedy “Delhi Belly” had “roughened a lot of feathers”.

“After the movie was passed the censor board changed a number of its guidelines. The question was asked how the film was allowed to be passed by the censor board. So rather than getting more inclusive and progressive, we are moving backwards. All of us (in the film industry) are frustrated. All of us are troubled by this.”

Responding to a question on the criticism of his uncle and Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan by a section of the society after his views on intolerance, Imran said the Indian film industry is a soft target.

“It is also what I would call an unsympathetic target. We are never able to defends ourselves,” he said, adding that every film is considered by the censor board on a case by case basis.

Inputs by PTI

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Amod Pandit

Quiet, resonant, and creative, he can be seen immersed in his own world, and puts in his heart and soul into the one passion that he has, Bollywood. His line for survival? Feel happy to be a part of it.