Censor Board banned 793 films in 16 years, reveals RTI

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The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) banned a total of 793 films in 16 years, an RTI response has revealed. Nutan Thakur, a city-based activist, has been told that between January 1, 2000 and March 31, 2016, the censor board refused to "grant certificate for exhibition to 793 films". These include 586 Indian films and 207 foreign film titles, Thakur told IANS on Tuesday.

As many as 231 Hindi films were refused certificate, followed by 96 in Tamil, 53 in Telugu, 39 in Kannada, 23 in Malayalam and 17 in Punjabi. Twelve films each in Bengali and Marathi, apart from projects in other languages, were also banned during this period.

A maximum number of 153 films were banned during 2015-16, followed by 152 films in 2014-15, 119 in 2013-14 and 82 films in 2012-13, the RTI query revealed.

Some of the films banned had sex and crime suggestive related titles like "Adamkhor Hasina", "Qatil Shikari", "Pyasi Chandani", "Madhura Swapnam", "Khooni Raat", "Shamshan Ghaat", "Manchali Padosan" and "Sex Vigyan".

Some notable films banned during this period include "Parzania" (English 2005), "Asatoma Sadgamaya" (Tamil 2012) and "Mohalla Assi" (Hindi 2015).

"Mohalla Assi" ultimately released last year.