It seems Oscar-nominated director of Little Terrorist, Ashwin Kumar, has been facing a hard time to get his film No Fathers in Kashmir certified from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).
“After an inordinate delay of nearly 90 days and no clarity on what the CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) was finding objectionable or why it took them so long to watch the film in the first place, finally, when CBFC came up with a list of cuts, we objected as the cuts proposed were based neither on reality nor on law,” Kumar said in a statement.
“The A certificate violates the fundamental rights of our core audience of youth, denying them a chance to know what is happening in their country, in their own name. It denies the possibility of dialogue between the youth of Kashmir and that of the rest of India. It is only through dialogue that any peaceful solution can be found. And it is only through telling the truth that a dialogue is possible in the first place, he said.
“Our film has no sex, no violence, no nudity, no vulgarity, no drugs,” he added.
“We went to FCAT (Film Certification Appellate Tribunal) for relief. They returned it to the CBFC as the latter did not give us a legally-mandated hearing. This is indicative of the CBFC’s poor grasp of its mandate and legalities. It does not take so long to give a censor certificate and we still have no idea when we will get it,” said the director.
“We have gone from two hearings in Mumbai to one in Delhi and now back to Mumbai and again back to Delhi, he added. Ashvin asserted that the film tries to show Kashmir with empathy and compassion.
The film stars two young actors in lead, Zara Webb and Shivam Rana, in addition to an impressive cast of Kulbulshan Kharbanda, Soni Razdan and Anshuman Jha. Ashwin has directed two short films earlier, Inshallah Football and Inshallah Kashmir, both of which were first banned by the film certification board and later went on to win one National Award each.
“No Fathers in Kashmir” is a love story between two 16-year-olds whose fathers have disappeared in Kashmir with no certainty of their return.
