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Amazon needs to stop censoring Indian films like Sarpatta Parambarai

Since its launch in India, Amazon Prime Video's track record in censoring its own content has been arbitrary, and downright puzzling at times. Sarpatta Parambarai, Pa. Ranjith's ambitious boxing film, never had a theatrical release. And yet, Amazon appears to have got a version of the film cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification, which regulates films in theatres, DVDs, and films shown on television. The law does not stop Amazon from streaming the film as it was made. However, the company went and cowered behind the safety of a Censor Board certificate. Even tamer swear words in Tamil films are frequently muted, anything that is even slightly politically subversive is undermined, and on top of the intrusive smoking warnings in the corner of the screen, drinking warnings are also added — warnings that Amazon has faithfully reproduced, in spite of, as recently as July 19, the government clarifying in Parliament that this was not required for streaming services. A CBFC official in Chennai refused to provide a cut list unless in response to an RTI application; we filed that application and got the cut list below. Amazon did not respond to a request for comment. [caption id="attachment_141654" align="aligncenter" width="1387"] Source: Central Board of Film Certification[/caption] As expected, the CBFC has removed all traces of subversive messaging that filmmakers like Ranjith have increasingly got stonewalled on: swear words are obviously gone, but so are politically-charged dialogues ("He's gone [from] [...] our party!", "dictator," "Kalaignar," [a reference to M. Karunanidhi,…

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I cover the digital content ecosystem and telecom for MediaNama.

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