Not a single call made to clear, restrict a film: Rathore

Minister of State for I&B Rajyavardhan Rathore today sought to clear the "perception" that the Centre was imposing restrictions on films, saying the government did not make a single phone call to get clearance for or impose curb on a film.
"A perception has been created that restrictions were imposed on films by the government...In the last one and half years, the government has not made a single phone call to clear or restrict a film," Rathore said while delivering the inaugural address at One Globe Knowledge Conference 2016 here.
He said the Indian audiences are mature enough to decide what they want to watch and "the government should not do moral policing".

The Minister said "radical" reforms were being brought in the way films are seen in India. "We are making the Censor Board more contemporary by bringing in filmmakers to manage it instead of the government," he said.
Highlighting the role played by radio in creating awareness among people, he said, "Radio has became a centre stage. Today, 45 per cent of the whole nation is covered by FM and in the next two to two and half years, 65 per cent of the whole country would be covered by it."
Taking about using television towers for FM channels, he said "there are 2,000 towers of the national broadcaster across the country. We cover 98 per cent of country by the broadcast.

"Now the whole idea is to use these towers not just for television broadcast but also put FM transmitter and digital transmitters on them."

Rathore also stressed the need to use various means, particularly social media, to create awareness about the schemes of government and policies in rural areas.
If the government's policies and schemes are not known to people, particularly in rural areas, then there would be "no advantage" of running them.
Noting the importance of one-to-one interaction for better delivery of schemes to rural areas, the Minister said "the government needs to create an army of people in every district for human-to-human contact.