The India release of British-Indian director Sandhya Suri’s critically acclaimed film Santosh has been blocked by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) over concerns about its portrayal of misogyny, Islamophobia and violence in the Indian police force, states a report in The Guardian.
The film is a police-procedural and stars Shahana Goswami as Santosh, a widow who inherits her late husband’s job as a police constable and soon gets embroiled in the investigation of a Dalit girl’s murder. Santosh also features Sunita Rajwar.
The film made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival last year to widespread acclaim. It was also UK’s official entry for the Oscars’ international feature category. Santosh was also nominated for a BAFTA for best debut feature this year. Its lead actor, Shahana, recently won best actress at the Asian film awards.s
As per The Guardian report “India’s largest cinema chain” was on board to distribute the film in January but the CBFC censors refused to approve its release over concerns about its “negative” portrayal of the police.
Director Sandhya, in an interview with the publication said that the decision was “surprising” for her and her team. “I didn’t feel that these issues were particularly new to Indian cinema or hadn’t been raised before by other films,” she said.
Sandhya added that the censors had demanded “radical” cuts so lengthy and wide-ranging that they would be “impossible” to implement.
“It was very important to me that the film is released in India so I did try to figure out if there was a way to make it work,” she said. “But in the end, it was just too difficult to make those cuts and have a film that still made sense, let alone stayed true to its vision.”
Sandhya also questioned whether the highly realistic depictions in her film as opposed to the often stylised format of Bollywood and other Indian film industries – had caused discomfort among the censors.
“Maybe there’s something about this film which is troubling in that everybody is morally compromised and there is no single hero,” she said. “I think that’s what might set it apart from other stories in Indian cinema which often show a maverick cop in a rotten system.”