The Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) in its seventh year, 2004, will achieve a dubious first. It will be the first international festival to make censoring mandatory for participating films. The Information & Broadcasting Ministry has asked filmmakers to submit their films for competition only after they are certified by the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC). The last date for sending the entries is August 30, which leaves the filmmakers with very little time. More than 90 documentary filmmakers from all over the country have written to Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and director of the MIFF, the country’s premier documentary festival, protesting against the attempt to censor their films. Among them are Pankaj Butalia, Rahul Roy, Sanjay Kak and Saba Dewan. While the official reason for asking Indian filmmakers to get their films censored is to ensure that the biennial attracts only films made in the last two years, filmmakers see it as a sinister move. They say the Government’s move is only to pre-empt criticism, especially after the carnages in Gujarat. ‘‘Documentary filmmakers community has been extremely distressed at the news that for the first time since the inception of MIFF (Mumbai International Film Festival), the possession of a censor certificate has been imposed by the Films Division as a precondition for participation of Indian films at the festival,’’ the letter to the minister said. Why is this a requirement only for Indian filmmakers, ask the filmmakers. ‘‘Foreign films have an unrestricted entry at MIFF. The word of the foreign filmmaker is accepted for its worth,’’ said a filmmaker. But the ministry thinks that the issue has been blown up. ‘‘We don’t think certification is that big an issue. No film can be exhibited in India without certification as per the cinematograph rules,’’ said Joint Secretary, Films, Anjali Duggal. The filmmakers are hoping they will be able to reason it out with the ministry officials. ‘‘If they don’t agree, we will have no other way but to opt out,’’ they say.
