Speaking at the Kolkata International Film Festival, Amitabh Bachchan flagged the issue of free speech and censorship in the Indian film industry, making a rare political comment.
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00:00Even now ladies and gentlemen, and I'm sure my colleagues on stage will agree
00:05questions are being raised on
00:08civil liberties and
00:10freedom of expression
00:12The advent of the angry young man of the 70s and 80s viewed against the frustration of countless
00:18unemployed youth to the current brand of historicals
00:23couched in fictionalized jingoism
00:30The
00:40Pandemic ladies and gentlemen has indeed been ruthless a
00:45Gruesome situation we were unprepared to face
00:49There was a sudden change in the status quo that altered the very dynamics of
00:55global economics
00:57beat in the functioning of business or
01:00our film industry
01:03So today we wonder what is in store for us in the future given all possible precautions we can take heart from a checkered past
01:12in which despite pestilence was
01:16Changing social dogmas and political turmoil film industries
01:20all over the world
01:22have always propagated courage and
01:26faced every challenge head-on
01:30Man ladies and gentlemen has always been a social animal and
01:36the need to belong to a community and
01:40Participate in a group of activities is a primal human need
01:47Long before the advent of cinema people
01:50turns to various forms of collective activity for entertainment
01:55Mainly centered around religious ceremonies and folk expressions
02:01Be the temple dances from South India and Manipur that gave birth to some of our major classical dance forms
02:09or the North Indian tradition of the Ramlila and the Raslila that married
02:15mythology and theater in their most
02:17accessible formats
02:19the tradition of kirtans and
02:23Qawwalis were born at a place of worship
02:26Like temples and dargahs to give communities a sense of companionship and solidarity
02:35Compared to these age-old practices cinema
02:38Is a relatively newer phenomenon with these never-ending
02:43confrontations in the 1940s
02:45the policing of Indian cinema grew
02:49Exasperatingly stringent
02:51To put it mildly over the rigmarole of five different censor boards setting up their own rules
02:58Things were chaotic
03:01Finally
03:02the 1952
03:04Cinematograph Act set out the structure of censorship as it stands today upheld by the film certification board
03:12But
03:14Even now ladies and gentlemen, and I'm sure my colleagues on stage will agree
03:20Questions are being raised on civil liberties and freedom of expression
03:28Since those early times there have been many changes in cinema content
03:33Production star system and the way films are viewed by audiences
03:38Subjects have also been vastly varied
03:41From mythological films socialist cinema like the films of Vimal Roy
03:46Chetan Anand and Raj Kapoor
03:48With his chaplain inspired tramp as the protagonist
03:52arthouse cinema
03:54The advent of the angry young man of the 70s and 80s viewed against the frustration of countless unemployed youth
04:01to the current brand of historicals
04:04couched in fictionalized jingoism
04:07along with moral policing
04:10the range has kept audiences reflecting on the politics and
04:15social concerns of our times through single screens
04:19videos
04:21multiplexes and now the burgeoning OTT
04:25Keeping in mind the new world order brought about by the kovat 19 pandemic
04:30Ladies and gentlemen, we will have to take into account how films are going to be made and watched in the near future
04:37Perhaps the clue lies in the works of our timeless cinema maestros
04:45near a home
04:46There may be pointers in Satyajit Ray's cinema
04:50which reveal a politically and socially conscious and
04:55often prescient vision of Bengal
04:59India and humanity
05:01His cinema ladies and gentlemen is a reflection of the dreams
05:06aspirations struggles angst
05:09challenges and corrosiveness of
05:12India's plurality