CBFC's U/A binge

IN Media Watch Briefs | 04/10/2017

Under its new head the CBFC has been handing out U/A certificates to films which you would expect to be certified 'U'. Newton, which is  about a polling officer's efforts to conduct elections in a Chhattisgarh village, has got U/A certification. So has Chef, starring Saif Ali Khan, because the hero of the film is divorced and smokes, the film's director told the media.                          

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The new term for self censorship is voluntary censorship, as proposed by companies like Netflix and Hotstar. ET reports that streaming video service Amazon Prime is opposing a move by its peers to adopt a voluntary censorship code in anticipation of the Indian government coming up with its own rules. Amazon is resisting because it fears that it may alienate paying subscribers.                   

Clearly, the run to the 2019 elections is on. A journalist received a call from someone saying they were from Aajtak channel and were conducting a survey, asking whom she was going to vote for in 2019. On being told that her vote was secret, the caller assumed she wasn't going to vote for 'Modiji'. The caller, a woman, also didn't identify herself. A month or two earlier the same journalist received a call, this time from a man, asking if she was going to vote for the BSP.                 

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