South Asia Censorship News

An Indian TV show which depicted a bizarre love story between a nine-year-old boy and an 18-year-old woman has been pulled off air following criticism that it promoted child marriage and was regressive.

In a statement, Sony Entertainment Television said they were cancelling the controversial daily soap Pehredaar Piya Ki (Husband's Guard).

The show which launched in mid-July, had attracted a lot of negative attention right from the beginning for the unusual love story at its centre.

The show's troubles began when Jai Ho Foundation, a Mumbai-based non-governmental organisation, petitioned authorities, demanding an immediate ban on it, describing it as indecent and unfit for children. Jai Ho said in a complaint letter to India's Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani:

A child is seen caressing, stalking and having a relationship of a sexual nature with a lady who is more than double his age... This is an indecent and obscene representation of a child for the purpose of representing sexual relationship.

The programme also prompted a lot of social media outrage in a country where child marriage is still rampant. A petition addressed to Ms Irani on change.org gathered more than 100,000 signatures, prompting the minister to write to the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) to take prompt action against the show.

The BCCC ordered the show timings to be changed from the prime time slot of 8:30pm to 10:30pm and the show also began putting out a disclaimer saying we do not support child marriage.

Toofan Singh is a 2017 India action film by Baghal Singh and Gurcharan Virk.
Starring Ranjit Bawa, Avtar Gill and Raza Murad.

The journey of a Punjabi Sikh boy who grew up during the chaotic, violent 1980s revolving around his chase for survival, equality and justice in order to protect and shield society and fight against brutality, crime and corruption.

India's new chief film censor hasn't got off to a very good start as he has already banned his first film.

Even as Prasoon Joshi stepped into the chairman's role at the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), reports have emerged of the new regime's first edict: banning the Punjabi film, Toofan Singh , on grounds of supposed excessive violence.

Poster of Punjabi film Toofan Singh.

Toofan Singh, directed by Baghal Singh and starring Ranjit Bawa in the title role, tells the story of a man who adopts terrorist-like tactics in order to fight corruption in Indian politics and bureaucracy.

A source from the CBFC reportedly said:

The film is brutal and anarchic. We couldn't empathise with its message of brute power, let alone grant it a censor certificate

In the UK, the film was passed 18 uncut for strong bloody violence, scenes of torture

India's film censors have ordered that a documentary about the economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen be altered to remove words including 'Hindu' 'India' and 'cow', the director has said.

Suman Ghosh said he was told by censor board officials that his one-hour documentary about Sen, a Harvard professor and essayist, could be released only if certain words were bleeped out. Those words reportedly included cow, Hindu India, Hindutva, a reference to the religious nationalist ideology of India's ruling party, and Gujarat, the home state of the country's prime minister, Narendra Modi .

I was quite shaken, Ghosh said of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) decision, against which he said he would be appealing. I was shocked but I thought, I have to argue.

In the documentary, named after his book of essays The Argumentative Indian, Sen criticises what he sees as the restricted vision of India espoused by Modi's rightwing nationalist party. In one reportedly censored scene, Sen lauds the value of vigorous argument and debate, in contrast to chastising people for having mistreated a cow or some such thing.