Censorship in India always a problem: Sudhir Mishra

Panaji: As the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) continues to face ire of the society for its extreme censorship policies, filmmaker Sudhir Mishra says censorship in India was always a problem, adding that one cannot sit on such diktats but fight against it.

"Censorship in India was always a bit of a problem in India. We will have to fight and one way is that you have to keep making the films that you want to," Mishra told IANS on the sidelines of the Film Bazaar here.

The recent issue to make headlines was when a kissing scene from James Bond film "Spectre" was cut short by the censor, making the board a laughing stock of society. The virtual world was brimming with trolls and memes going by the hashtag -- #SanskariJamesBond.

Mishra of "Chameli" and "Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi" fame asserted that such steps may force many established directors of the west to skip India release of their film, resulting into a loss for Indian audience.

"In old days we used to have complaints that they allow this in foreign film and they don't allow it in Indian films. Some of the serious filmmakers of the west will not allow the film to be released with any cuts like Steven Spielberg or Woody Allen," Mishra said.

"I guess the James bond film is a producer's film so they might accept but the films that are made with vision of director or writer intact they will not allow it," he said.

The director, who has now flipped the classic story of "Devdas" and is coming with "Dasdev", feels all such steps are a result of "overzealous attitude of some people and is not valid".