Analysis of Censorship and Female Sexuality in Indian Cinema (2019)

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes the portrayal of female sexuality in Indian cinema and the impact of censorship laws.

2019
POSITION PAPER
“Indian Cinema on Female Sexuality and Censorship Laws”

In our country, there are several cases which describe the inequality between men and women
because of different cultural and ritual aspects linked with the people in India. Talking about the
present situation of discrimination, Indian institution can be kept at a great height in the list of
the same (Mody-Kotwal, 2017). On the basis of gender, women are always kept at a lower
position than the man in India, from birth to death. Proceeding further, even after freedom there
are several cases that can practically define discrimination among men and women in several
industries. Talking about the Indian cinema for Bollywood, women have always been dominated
by men for decades and have not provided any facilities and services that can clearly show
female sexuality and perception.
In addition to this, the different censorship laws still block the path of women in the industry
focusing on the sexual content which they see as the taboo for the Indian culture. So, combining
this both subjects of human sexuality and censorship laws, the present position paper will try to
show the present situation of women in Indian cinema with some best possible arguments that
describe the censorship laws and there focus on female sexuality (Punathambekar, nd.). The
given study has been based on the position of the female sexuality and censorship laws in Indian
Cinema. The theme of the given study would be to focus on the portrayal of women in Indian
cinema and how censorship law affects their presentation in Indian cinema. The researcher
would take a firm position on taking a firm stance on how censorship boards affect the portrayal
of women in Indian cinema and how it cuts those scenes which might affect the successful
delivery of the message via cinema. The researcher would argue by taking the Indian censor
board into consideration and identify various flaws in the study which shows the way the censor
board tries to present women in the Indian cinema.
Censorship is defined as a procedure which is used in the cinema for regulating any content or
scenes which are inappropriate to be viewed by the public. It has been considered as an essential
part of the cinema worldwide so as to stop violation of the public sentiments and maintain peace
in the region or country. The constitution of India provides freedom of speech and expression of
thoughts through any medium including cinema. Although there is no mentioning of the medium
of communication of ideas, yet the constitution allows some restrictions if the subject matter
showcases anything which is against decency and morality, violence and public order. Thus, the
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Indian constitution fully justifies the presence of censorship of film content as per the benefits
for the Indian society.
The law which governs censorship in India is the Cinematograph Act which came into force in
1952. It resulted in the establishment of the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC) whose
main objective is to keep a check on the content which has been presented in the public through
an electronic medium such as films.
According to Mody-Kotwal (2017), women are classified into whores, sluts, dayans if they
express their desires or try and fulfil them, on the other hand, the people in India pray women as
a symbol of their holy God. The current situation of the Indian censorship board is very crucial in
maintaining the Indian culture and mentality of people towards the women sexuality-related
content in the cinema. There are sayings of people that the censorship of Indian cinema takes the
right of an individual from I'm watching what they want. There are films like Lipstick under my
Burkha, Fire, Margarita with straw etc. which shows the sexual content related to women in
Indian cinema and were highly popular and at the same time controversial. At the same time, the
research article by Dubey (2016) states that “The human sensibilities are not offended by
vulgarity, obscenity or depravity”. The CBFC possess the right to remove the content which is
not acceptable for the Indian culture and this makes them remove most of the women sexual
content from the cinema.
Barrass (2014) has anticipated the subject in India and said that there are several superstars like
Shahrukh Khan Salman Khan Amitabh Bachchan etc. women stars like Katrina Kaif Aishwarya
Rai Bachchan etc. but there is a huge difference between their popularity and pay scales. He also
said that the power of issuing the U certificate and A certificate in Indian movies try to stop those
whom I not eligible to see the content generally for people below 18. Especially regarding the
content related to women sexuality, the rules of the CBFC changes and the result is, most of the
movies are not released the way like a normal movie in the theatres. The Cinematograph Act of
1952 gave several principles for certification of the films and with respect to sexual content, if
they found it against the interests of "decency or morality" then it would not be given a
certificate and therefore couldn't be shown in the theatres.
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In the same subject, Ankush (2013) has described that recently India’s Ministry of Information
and Broadcasting held a six-day festival for 100 years of film making and discuss on some of the
agreements data related to the sexual content and attitude of people towards the women in the
cinema. The article is completely based on women and the discrimination they face in the
industry. Basically, people are not ready to accept the thing that pregnant sexuality content can
also help in empowering women as this may be an interpersonal need which has to be presented
with proper ethical compliance.
Authors like Duhan (2018) said that growing up in an Indian household is difficult as there is
often no space left to introspect over our cracks. But because of the advanced perceptions of the
young generations nowadays, the scenario regarding the above subject has been changed
completely. People think that there is no need to hinder people who want to produce adult
content or anything which is offensive to Indian culture and history. As a matter of fact, books
like Kamasutra is originated from the same country. Producers, directors or even artists are ready
to show society, this face of the culture. In contrast to this, Mazumdar (2017) say that bringing
these changes to the Indian society will create a very bad impression on the future generations
where one does not have anything for real and permanent. Indian censorship board should not be
dominated under the decisions of the chairman or action person as there may be a chance that
he/she will think on its own perception and provide a certificate to the film but rather there
should be some predefined measures or standards on which every film needs to be fulfilled so
that there will be no discrimination.
Some of the examples of movies that have shown the women sexual scenes are Fire (1996) in
which the actresses have shown with a lesbian relationship and also showed that women don’t
have to be completely dependent on men for sex. Another best example for this subject is
Margarita with a Straw (2014) where a girl fell in love with the blind girl and things are shown to
the audience but as a matter of fact, the society doesn’t care for this type of contents, rather they
watch it without family or creates bad perception towards the film in front of others. In addition
to this, there is a big role of the politics in the Indian society and transformation of the mental
states of people regarding many things and this is one of the subjects included. Politicians avoid
this type of subjects and try to remove them from the society which hinders the directors and
producers to make a film. At the same time, they say to develop the nation without giving
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freedom to everyone for the way they want to live. Women with sexual desires may be one of the
most controversial situations for that woman in India to show openly and in terms of cinema
which tries to show it is also offended by several groups and societies.
Punathambekar (nd.) has developed a study showcasing the marketing and advertising of the
Indian cinema which resulted in showing that the industry has mixed perceptions regarding the
women sexual content for the public but also found that there is a need to showcase the western
culture. In this, Kishore (2014) illustrated that the censorship laws are flexible at present
according to the perceptions of people, actual content etc. which needs to be reformed
accordingly in India. If the laws at present can be made with some defined standards and norms
that can avoid the sexuality content, with no puns intended or double meaning statements etc.
can be monitored on the same basis. The role of the censorship laws in every cinema industry is
to safeguard the feelings, traditions, perceptions etc. Hence, this women sexuality is one of the
things seen as a taboo in India which practically should be avoided for those who are not above
18 but because of the shortcomings of the Indian government, the contents are available to all on
the internet for free as a pirated content and they cannot do anything about this. The government
has taken several steps in the last few years to stop this but people still found the content easily
by themselves or from others.
As per Shastri (2014), gender inequality has become a normal thing in India because of the
variety of cultures present and most of them don't give all the value and benefits to the women.
Despite the fact that situations are changed for both men and women as there are gays as well as
lesbians in India. The Indian government recently accepted that they should also need the right to
live and marry if they want. Overall it can be said that the current situations of the country and its
cinema is not what it has potential of, people are not ready to accept that they watch these things
publicly because of their cultural norms that don’t allow them to do so. In this, women sexuality
is a wide bigger concept that cannot be accepted easily in India. Studies by Ankush (2013)
clearly depicts that this gender biasing can be avoided through providing some best possible
standards by the censorship board of the country and try to shake the views of people related to
these type of contents.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ankush, A., 2013. No consensus on sex, violence and censorship in Bollywood, online available
at http://blogs.reuters.com/india/2013/05/02/no-consensus-on-sex-violence-and-censorship-in-
bollywood/ last accessed on 1st April 2019.
Barrass, N., 2014. In bed with Bollywood: sex and censorship in Indian cinema, online available
at https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/apr/14/bollywood-sex-censorship-indian-cinema last
accessed on 1st April 2019.
Dubey, R., 2016. Screen Sex and Censorship: What the law says. Screen Sex and Censorship:
What the law says, online available at http://ranjeevdubey.com/businesstoday/159/article.html
last accessed on 1st April 2019.
Duhan, A., 2018. (Mis) Representation of Gender and Sexuality in Indian Cinema, online
available at https://www.mapsofindia.com/my-india/imo/mis-representation-of-gender-and-
sexuality-in-indian-cinema last accessed on 1st April 2019.
Kishore, V., 2014. Dil Dance Maare Re. In Bollywood and Its Other (s) (pp. 86-109). Palgrave
Macmillan, London.
Mazumdar, S., 2017. 8 Bollywood Films on Female Sexuality Which Show That Women Want
Sex As Much As Men, online available at https://www.vagabomb.com/Bollywood-Films-Which-
Show-That-Women-Want-Sex/ last accessed on 1st April 2019.
Mody-Kotwal, M., 2017. Censorship, sex and films, online available at
https://www.asianage.com/india/all-india/060317/censorship-sex-and-films.html last accessed on
1st April 2019.
Punathambekar, A., Advertising and marketing of the Indian Cinema.
Shastri, A., 2014. Gender inequality and women discrimination. IOSR Journal Of Humanities
And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), 19, p.28.
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