Censor Board to raise the issue of producers talking ill about the cuts made by the panel

According to the grapevine, the Censor Board might present a proposal for a gag order on filmmakers at Samvad 2011, an interactive session on cinema and certification to be held on June 14.

Apparently, the panel is of the opinion that filmmakers often divulge as to why certain cuts were made in their films, to the media.

Samvad is being held by the Central Board of Film Certification along with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and will be attended by several eminent personalities from the industry.

A source from the Censor Board says, "The board is concerned with the fact that whatever happens in the Examining Committee (EC) is later leaked out by the filmmakers either for publicity or other reasons.

Ideally, the reasons given for cutting certain scenes or songs should stay between the board and the producers. But the board has noticed that these things are loosely talked about to the media and it creates a lot of problems."

The source adds, "According to rules that exist for the panel members and the examining officers of the board, we cannot talk about the film to anyone.

Unfortunately, that rule doesn't apply to the producers. A gag order for the producers might not be the most practical thing, but the issue will be raised for sure."

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chauhan will be the chief guest at Samvad 2011. Raghu Menon, secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting will give a special address at the meet.

The seminar will also have keynote addresses by Amit Khanna, chairman, CII, Leela Samson, chairperson, Censor Board, Yash Chopra and Shabana Azmi.

The heavy-duty panelists include filmmakers like Ramesh Sippy, Rituparno Ghosh, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Mahesh Bhatt and Anurag Kashyap apart from actress Khushboo.