RTI activist Nutan Thakur filed an RTI asking Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) about the number of movies banned in a span of 16 years. And the Film Certification board revealed that it has banned a total of 793 films in 16 years.
The city-based activist has been told that between January 1, 2000, and March 31, 2016, the censor board refused to “grant a certificate for exhibition to 793 films”, out of which 586 were Indian films and 207 were foreign language films.
231 Hindi films, 96 in Tamil, 53 in Telugu, 39 in Kannada, 23 in Malayalam and 17 in Punjabi and 12 films each in Bengali and Marathi were refused certificate during this period.
CBFC also revealed that a maximum number of films were banned during 2015-16, which was 153, followed by 152 films in 2014-15, 119 in 2013-14 and 82 films in 2012-13, the RTI query revealed.
Most films were banned due to their sex and crime suggestive related titles like ‘Adamkhor Hasina’, ‘Qatil Shikari’, ‘Pyasi Chandani’, ‘Madhura Swapnam’, ‘Khooni Raat’, ‘Shamshan Ghaat’, ‘Manchali Padosan’ and ‘Sex Vigyan’.
Last year released Sunny Deol starrer ‘Mohalla Assi’ was also banned in 2015, but it ultimately got the clearance after three years.