New IndPress

Mysore, Jul 21: Noted filmmaker M S Sathyu said that censorship of films cannot be justified when no other media sectors are subjected to censorship in India.

“It is unfortunate that cinema is the only medium, which is subjected to censorship. Other media fields like print, theatre, television and literature are free from it,” he said on the second day of the three-day foundation day lecture series at CIIL here.

The censor policy was mooted and nurtured by the colonials to keep the Indians suppressed. Censorship of films kills a director’s creativity. The cinema has lost the basic constitutional right of freedom, he regretted.

He regretted that recent films have lost poetic zest and nature. The highly commercialised thinking has lowered standards of songs and poetic nature of films in their entirety. Commercial films can also depict a good poetic nature, Sathyu said.

Referring to the controversial Jayamala case where she claimed that she touched Ayyappa’s feet in Shabarimala, he said a civilized society had to be ashamed of the row on her claim. Does God differentiate between sexes, he asked?