Censor board members discuss modernisation with minister

Some members of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) on Tuesday "unofficially" met Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and discussed modernisation of the board.

Unlike a similar meeting that took place on Monday night where many known faces were present, Tuesday's meeting was more of an "unofficial" one with just a few board members.

Ashok Pandit and Chandraprakash Dwivedi attended Tuesday's meeting.

"The meeting was very positive today and we discussed how to modernise the CBFC, how to convert the CBFC to film certification, how to come closer to the film industry, how to do modern work.

"The basic meeting was on the relation between the CBFC and the film industry. How do we come closer to each other, that is what was discussed," Pandit told reporters.

Rathore said: "Film certification... we take it seriously because many people are associated with it. What the audience wants to see, how will it reflect the society... it's an important issue to understand.

"There should be transparency in it and we would like to do it online... it will take time but we will try," he said.

However, the board members said it was an "unofficial" meeting.

"Today's was not an official meeting. Since Rajyavardhan Rathore was in Mumbai, we wanted to meet him. We didn't speak about the past, we spoke about the future of film certification. We didn't speak anything about the past," Dwivedi said.

While there were also reports of sacking board chief Pahlaj Nihalani, Rathore said: "The point is a lot of people do not represent the news of what is coming... some of you have already decided what news you want to show, so let me make it clear. Yesterday's (Monday's) discussion was issue specific and not person specific. We are discussing ideas, suggestions. Film certification is so robust that no one person can affect it and I stand by the word today."