The Kerala High Court on Friday questioned the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) on its order to withhold the certification for Union Minister Suresh Gopi鈥檚 film JSK: Janaki vs State of Kerala.
Deputy Solicitor General of India (DSGI), OM Shalina, who appeared for CBFC, said that the objection was regarding the central character of the film, named Janaki 鈥 a name associated with Hindu goddess Sita, Bar and Bench reported.
To the objection, Justice N Nagaresh observed that there are several films with the names of gods and goddesses and yet censor certificates were issued in the past.
鈥淲hy should somebody change the name of a character? Janaki is a common name used everywhere. What religious purpose? We have movies with names Sita and Gita. Janaki is Sita. Nothing happened then. Nobody had any complaints. We have a film named Ram Lakhan. Nobody has any complaint. How come there are some complaints for Janaki now?鈥 the court asked.
The court鈥檚 remarks came while hearing a petition filed by the film鈥檚 production company Cosmos Entertainment, regarding the delay in censor certification. The petition mentioned that the application for film certification was submitted through the CBFC鈥檚 e-cinepramaan portal on June 12. However, the CBFC has neither issued the certificate nor raised any official objections so far. It also noted that the CBFC had earlier given a censor certificate for the film鈥檚 teaser trailer, Bar and Bench reported.
Shalina informed the court that the film includes mature themes such as sexual crimes against women and the use of explicit language referring to women.
According to the petitioner, the CBFC was delaying the certificate due to its informal objections to the film鈥檚 title and the character name 鈥楯anaki鈥.
鈥淓ven though no official communication or show cause notice have been received from the respondents, from the newspaper reports, the petitioner came to know that the censor board had directed to change in the title as well as the name of the titular character of Janaki, by citing that it refers to the Hindu goddess 鈥淪ita鈥, which shows the inconsistency and arbitrariness in the stand now taken by the Censor Board in objecting to the same title and character name at the stage of certifying the full film, despite having previously granted certification for the teaser without raising any such concerns,鈥 the petition said.
The petitioner also said that the film was set for worldwide release on June 27 and the delay amounts to a violation of the fundamental right to free speech.
Stating that this would cause 鈥渋rreparable financial loss鈥 to the company, the company urged the court to order the CBFC to issue a censor certificate to the film expeditiously.
At the previous hearing, the Court had chosen to wait for the decision of the CBFC鈥檚 revising committee. The committee met on June 26 and issued a show cause notice to the production company, stating that the name 鈥淛anaki鈥 must be removed from the film鈥檚 title, character name, dialogues, and anywhere else it appears.
The Court then directed the Deputy Solicitor General of India (DSGI) to submit a copy of the notice and scheduled the next hearing for Monday, June 30.