'Dunno Y2 struggles with CBFC for being gay
- IndiaGlitz, [Thursday,September 03 2015]
Though globally there is a widespread acceptance and celebration of Gay Marriage with the USA Supreme Court recognising the free choice of an individual, here it seems like it will take another generation to fight for their legitimate rights. Film makers are the first soft targets to face censorship and oppression.
And keeping in mind the sentiments of the conservative culture Nazi in India, the censor board are bit cagey whenever it comes to gay themed film in India. And surely enough the film makers of the 'Proper' gay themed film, DUNNO Y2, had to face similar obstacles when they presented the film to the censor board 4 months back.
The filmmakers were aghast when the 5 member board saw the film and refused to give the certificate for the release of the film. Film is releasing 17th September 2015.
A source reveals that some of the 5 member board were very rigid in their thinking and spoke of how the film will promote and normalise 'homosexual lifestyle' since it is a mainstream gay themed film and therefore should be restricted. Morever they added their rather infamy argument that it would 'ignite' unnatural passions' in viewers, giving credence to their homophobia. The source added that the film makers were so exasperated by this thinking and commented sarcastically that if that's the case, then perhaps Rajnikant and SRK films would have ignited science.
The makers then applied the screening for the 9 member revising committee, and thankfully after 4 months, they have now finally passed the film for release next month in September.
Says actors Kapil Sharma and Yuvraaj Parashar "We went through a lot of stress these 4 months as we were not sure if the film would finally reach to audience or not, as earlier this year they had banned one gay themed film. The distributors were also skeptical whether this film will ever pass. We could not finalise the release date till we got the censor certificate in hand. But we were sure of one thing, we dared to make a film on human rights equality, and however tough it would be, we would fight it out to the end. And it would not only be the victory of the LGBT community but for every Indian democratic rights.
They also added " Since DUNNO Y2 posters, trailer and songs were already online from the last 4 months, there had been tremendous curiosity among the audience and lot of fans were asking about the release date. It was embarrassing, but we didn't tell them the reason for the delay of the film release as we didn't wanted to tell them about our struggle with the censor board. But finally after so much of struggle and stress our labour of love will see the light of day in September. It's the victory for the cinematic fans as well as the more assertive gay rights agitators for equal human rights"