Kamal Haasan double standards on Draft Cinematograph Act

Kamal Haasan kept silent on the draft that gave Manmohan Singh Ministry to be the sole authority to ban a film after being censored. Today he is opposing the draft circulated by Modi ministry that seeks to have the discretionary powers to recall a film after being certified by CBFC. In 2013, when Kamal Haasan's Viswaroopam was banned by Tamil Nadu Government, the issue prompted Manmohan Singh ministry to appoint an empowered committee to look into the issue of censored films facing ban. Based on the report, the Union ministry put out a draft asking public to give their views.

As those in the I&B ministry point out that the actor's silence was probably because the Union ministry sided him in the fight against Jayalalithaa led AIADMK ministry  had led him to remain silent, Other critics of the present draft too had kept quiet  shows that the  pseudo stance and the presence of Javed Akhtar in the panel could be a factor to silence them. As the officials point out that the present draft gives powers to Union ministry to recall a censored film and have it re- examined, the 2013 draft advocated for the Central Government to have sole power to ban a film.

Below is a report published in Livemint.com  22 Oct 2013,

The ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) has issued a draft of the Cinematograph Act 2013, proposing that the central government should be solely empowered to suspend the exhibition of a film, as opposed to state governments and other local authorities.

No order of suspension of exhibition of any film shall be passed by any state government or the administration of a Union territory save and except an order passed by the central government as provided for in this Section," said the draft.

The Bill comes after the empowered committee under the chairmanship of Mukul Mudgal, a retired chief justice of the high court of Punjab and Haryana, submitted its report to MIB earlier this month.

The committee was constituted in February by the central government to examine issues of censorship arising out of a ban imposed by the state government of Tamil Nadu on the Kamal Hassan starrer Vishwaroopam. The ban was later lifted.

According to a statement released by the ministry, the purpose of making the Bill public was to invite feedback on the proposed legislation.

The members of the committee that proposed the changes also included lyricist Javed Akhtar and former chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification Sharmila Tagore.