The Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) has directed the Censor Board to grant an A-certificate to the film Lipstick Under My Burkha, which had earlier been refused certification by the Board.
The FCAT has directed that the film be granted certification with “voluntary and some additional cuts and deletions” while observing that the cuss words and intimate scenes shown in the film were integral to the story line.
It, however, directed the makers of the film to mute a couple of Hindi words, including those referring to prostitutes, from a couple of scenes.
The Central Board of Film Certifications (CBFC) Examining and Revising Committee had refused certification to the film saying “women in the film are shown in bad light, particularly targeting women of certain community, which might hurt sentiments.”
Following the CBFCs decision, the film’s director Alankrita Srivastava and producer Prakash Jha had filed an appeal in the FCAT.
The makers have maintained that the film revolves around the lives of four women seeking freedom for their desires, dreams and aspirations through small acts of courage and stealthy rebellion against patriarchy.
The FCAT, headed by former Delhi Lokayukta Justice Manmohan Sarin, observed that the CBFC ‘misdirected themselves in denying certification’ to the women-oriented film.
“The Examining and Revising Committee of the CBFC have misdirected themselves in denying certification on the ground that the story of the film is women-oriented. There cannot be any embargo on a women-oriented film or one containing sexual fantasies and expression of the inner desires of women,” observed the Tribunal.
The makers of the film had offered to make some cuts in the film.
However, the FCAT suggested a few deletions in the intimate scenes ‘without affecting in any manner the projection and substance of the scene or in any manner affecting the basic film’.
Lipstick Under My Burkha has been winning hearts globally, with the film garnering praise at one film festival after another.
The film, featuring Konkona Sen Sharma, Ratna Pathak Shah, Aahana Kumra and Plabita Borthakur, has also won the Spirit of Asia Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival, and the Oxfam Award for Best Film on Gender Equality at the Mumbai Film Festival.
(Feature Image Source: YouTube/Trailer)