"That is truly frightening," Uday Shankar, Chairman and CEO of STAR India, said at FICCI Frames 2017 this morning, pointing to the growing trend of censorship in India, saying that "in 2015-2016, the censor board refused certification to 77 movies. This number was 47 in the previous year and only 23 the year before." The censorship has been inexplicable, he illustrated, saying that "Even a word like - forgive me for using it - "saali", has to be silenced in a film. The city names have to be absolutely correct, and contemporary. And of course, do not go anywhere near discussions of women's issues, let alone female sexuality." "As the world gets bolder," he said "our censoring apparatus seems to be getting more and more conservative." But Shankar said that the fault isn't that of the censor board alone, and pointed towards an increase in vigilantism in Indian society. "In my view the (censor) board generally reflects the collective and dominant consensus of our society. There are increasingly more bodies, mostly self appointed, who have taken upon themselves the task of censoring media content. The refrain seems to be: I don't like the legend or the myth on which your story is based, so I will burn down your (film/TV) set. I don't like the character, so I will not let you release your film. If you say you're going to do a show of busting fake godmen, I'll take preemptive action." Referring to growth of censorship in India as…
