India's film censors lighten up

May 02, 2008 The Central Board of Film Certification refused certificates to just 11 films in 2007 and cleared 1,507, including 361 imports, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said last weekcq. If refused once, producers can appeal and take their films to court, which usually results in a release with cuts, a board spokesman in Mumbai said Friday. Censors gauge films based on guidelines most recently revised in 1991, barring films showing "pointless or avoidable scenes of violence" and other scenes that "may have the effect of desensitizing or dehumanizing people."

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