{"id":49799,"date":"2018-02-09T18:54:21","date_gmt":"2018-02-10T02:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/?p=49799"},"modified":"2018-02-09T18:54:21","modified_gmt":"2018-02-10T02:54:21","slug":"indias-concept-of-censoring-films-is-faulty-nandita-das","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/indias-concept-of-censoring-films-is-faulty-nandita-das\/","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s Concept of Censoring Films is Faulty: Nandita Das"},"content":{"rendered":"

(L-r) Actors Rasika Dugal and Nawazuddin Siddiqui and director Nandita Das attend \u201cThe Manto ‘In Conversation’\u201d at the 70th Cannes Film Festival, May 23, 2017, in Cannes, France. (Pierre Suu\/Getty Images for Viacom18)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

The concept of censoring films by a board is \u201cfaulty,\u201d said noted actor-filmmaker Nandita Das, asserting that a handful of people cannot decide what an entire nation wants to see, writes Meraj Bhat.<\/b><\/p>\n

\n

The 48-year-old film personality said it was very \u201cdangerous\u201d that some self-proclaimed custodians of culture were telling people what was right and wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cLarger censorship issues are coming up now. If art has to flourish, it needs freedom. The whole concept of a censor board and to censor films in itself is faulty. How can a handful of people decide what all of us as a nation want to see?\u201d she said at the Jaipur Literature festival, in Jaipur, Jan. 26.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are actually undermining the audience. They are belittling you (audience) by saying that we know what you should watch and should not watch. If we are not going to fight for our freedom, who will?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

Speaking from the packed Front Lawns of the iconic Diggi Palace, the award-winning artist spoke at length about her upcoming film on celebrated writer, Saadat Hasan Manto. The lead actor of the film Nawazuddin Siddiqui was also in attendance.<\/p>\n

Das said she chose \u2018Manto\u2019 as a subject for her film not because of his religion or nationality, but for what the writer stood for.<\/p>\n

\u201cManto defined himself as a human being beyond the identities of nationalism and religion. He was a big champion of free speech and fought many battles. He was tried for obscenity six times. He wrote stories that were raw and truthful. He had deep conviction and that gave him a lot of courage.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is so relevant today and his work is the best way to respond to contemporary times. That is why, I felt Manto was the right person to talk about in my film,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Das, though, admitted that she would never make a period film again because it became extremely difficult to recreate a previous period due to the \u201cclutter\u201d that sets in with passage of time, which eventually spoils everything.<\/p>\n

The filmmaker said she found similarities between Manto and Nawazuddin\u2019s anger, sense of humor and arrogance, while revealing that the actor had not charged a dime for the film.<\/p>\n

Asked about which historical character he would like to play, Nawazuddin said he would love to portray Dilip Kumar\u2019s character in the iconic film \u201cMughal-e-Azam.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would definitely love to do it. My personality is often underestimated. People think I am good at doing roles of a gangster only, but I can do \u2018royal-type\u2019 roles too. I find them interesting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Opening up about his role in \u201cManto,\u201d Nawazuddin said, \u201cThe biggest difficulty in playing Manto was being a truthful person. I speak a lot of lies, was polluted and had to purify myself before playing the titular role.\u201d<\/p>\n

The actor said his upbringing in a secular set up was the reason for his sound understanding of Hinduism.<\/p>\n

He said the commercial aspect of a film has prompted him to dance, something he otherwise would never imagine of doing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(L-r) Actors Rasika Dugal and Nawazuddin Siddiqui and director Nandita Das attend \u201cThe Manto ‘In Conversation’\u201d at the 70th Cannes Film Festival, May 23, 2017, in Cannes, France. (Pierre Suu\/Getty Images for Viacom18) The concept of censoring films by a board is \u201cfaulty,\u201d said noted actor-filmmaker Nandita Das, asserting that a handful of people cannot…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":49741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,1848],"tags":[819,2984,5182,3071,143,50,4790,5051,140,5183,4173,43,147],"class_list":["post-49799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-society","tag-manto","tag-cbfc","tag-censorship","tag-cinema","tag-culture","tag-india","tag-jaipur-literature-festival","tag-jlf2017","tag-literature","tag-nandita-das","tag-nawazuddin-siddiqui","tag-opinion","tag-siliconeer"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}