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Regional Officer of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) Nagendra Swamy transferred for his reported remark against Central Board of Film Certification.

The Central Board of Film Certification gave Spectre aU/A certificate after imposing two verbal and visual cuts

Regional Officer of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) Nagendra Swamy’s remark on the kissing scenes in Bond flick Spectre appears to have cost him dear.

In a sudden development, Mr. Swamy vacated his post on Friday and made way for Natasha D’Souza from New Delhi. Mr. Swamy was holding the additional charge of regional officer, besides a post in the Department of Field Publicity.

Reacting to CBFC’s stand on the kissing scene in Spectre , which was given a U/A certificate after imposing two verbal and visual cuts, Mr. Swamy had said in an interview to a newspaper: “A kiss is a kiss…when CBFC wanted to cut it, why did it allow 10 seconds of it?” He argued that they should have either let it run or cut it out entirely. “By doing this, we are violating our own guidelines,” he had said, noting that CBFC guidelines do not ban showing of kissing in movies.

“My statement on the decision of CBFC might be the reason for my transfer,” Mr. Swamy told The Hindu.

In his two-year term in the office, Mr. Swamy was in the news for more than one reason. A notice issued by him to a few Kannada channels seeking clarification on airing the condom ad featuring Sunny Leone had turned controversial. They aired the controversial ad, despite the Bengaluru office of CBFC issuing ‘A’ certificate. Interestingly, after the Bengaluru office issued an ‘A’ certificate, the Mumbai office issued a U/A certificate two months later.

According to norms, once an ‘A’ certificate is issued, the film-maker has to approach the revision committee to obtain a U/A certificate. However, instead of applying to the revision committee of the Bengaluru office, the ad makers obtained the U/A certificate from the Mumbai office of CBFC.

The incident had triggered a debate in the Kannada film industry. Expressing reservation over Bengaluru office’s “rigidity” with films dealing with violence and sensuous scenes, prominent producers and distributors sought to know why they shouldn’t get their films censored in Mumbai, after getting an ‘A’ certificate from the Bengaluru office. Mr. Swamy was also embroiled in controversy after denying a certificate to Babu Eshwar Prasad’s Gaali Beeja , a meta-narrative in the road movie genre, attributing lack of stipulated “technical” standards.

On the other hand, Mr. Swamy won the praise of the industry by getting their films censored by taking it to Mumbai, when there was a shortage of members on the advisory panel.

A kiss is a kiss…when CBFC wanted to cut it, why did it allow 10 seconds of it. By doing this, we are violating our own guidelines

Nagendra Swamy, regional officer, CBFC.