The CBFC is behaving in a very strange way Shyam Benegal on the Padmavati row

21 Nov 2017

As the Padmavati crisis escalates to the national level, more reasonable voices from within the and outside the entertainment industry can be heard questioning the veryreason of the national uproar. ShyamBenegal whohas faced furious backlash in his time for his cinema onsocio-cultural equality is baffled by the extent of the Padmavati uproar. I am sorry I cant comment on Padmavati.I havent seen it, have you? No one has seen it. Yet there are hordes of people objecting to its content. Does that make any sense? I cant understand how the protest has spread across the nation when hardly anyone has seen the film. How can the protest against a film become so rampant when no one has seen the film, no one knows the content. I am sorry; the protests make no sense, unless we judge them against the political current political climate in the country. ShyamBabuwhose films like Ankur,Nishant,Manthan focused on the evils of the caste system sees a pattern of vote-bank politics in the protests against Padmavati.This is being done to consolidate theRajputvote. Now, you must understand that theRajputcommunity is not one homogenized community across the country. TheRajputsofRajasthan possess a different mind-set and cultural inclination as compared with the Rajputsin other parts of India. And even thoseRajputsin different regions outsideRajasthanare diverse in their outlook. By raking up the Padmavati non-issue, theKarniSena hopes to homogenize theRajputcountry across the country, unite them over an utterly irrelevant crisis. Sadly their ploy seems to be working. If I amfrom aparticular caste and you tell me my cultural heritage is threatened I will naturally react against the threat. ShyamBenegalwhohelmeda committee to recommend reforms in the workings of the censor board has strong words of censure for the censors. I must say theCBFCis behaving very strangely in the matter of Padmavati.If the film did not carry a disclaimer, it could easily be corrected. Why send the film back? Again it seems very suspicious. Heurges the protesters togetreasonable. Wait for Padmavati to release then pass your verdict. What is the point in commenting over a film whose content has not been exposed to the public?