Abolish censorship, says Shyam Benegal

Panaji: Veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal has come out against the growing menace of the censor board, saying he personally does not believe in censorship of creativity and it should be abolished.

Censor board chief Pahlaj Nihalani has been criticised on social media as well as by his colleagues and Bollywood actors after it was revealed that board had shortened the length of kissing scenes in James Bond movie "Spectre".

Benegal, 80, best known for his movies like ‘Ankur’, ‘Bhumika’, ‘Junoon’, ‘Nishant’ and credited with bringing alternative cinema in the '70s, said the current scenario with the censor board is not very pleasing.

"In one word, I would say abolish censorship. I personally don't believe in censorship... I am concerned about the imposition of censorship here, which has no real purpose except to come in the way of you expression. That's the kind of censorship I oppose," Benegal said on the sidelines of IFFI.

"There is a certain amount of debate going on in the press about censorship and chairman and how it does not appeal to large number of people. This kind of thing does not make sense. It has no place."

Benegal said filmmakers can try and get out of these tricky censorship situations in the country by adopting novel techniques.

"People creatively can bypass censorship and they do that. When it comes to matters of sex, there are ways and means the filmmakers use to go past censorship. Without the censor even being aware of what is happening. This happens," Benegal said.