Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chief Pahlaj Nihalani said that the censor board is not homophobic. Nihalani made these comments after awarding an A certificate to a newly-released gay music video, Miss You, by Sharif D Rangnekar,
He added that the board does not follow any separate guidelines regarding content on same-sex love.
“Not at all. We have no problem or concern with the gender of two people in love, as long as they conduct themselves within the guidelines that have been provided to us,” Pahlaj was quoted as saying by IANS.
Earlier, same-sex scenes in Hansal Mehta’s Aligarh and Pan Nalin’s Angry Indian Goddesses had also ran into problems with the censor board.
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“No cuts are made on the basis of the gender of the people involved. We evaluate films with homosexual content by the same yardstick as films about heterosexual content,” Nijalani was quoted as saying. “We cleared the music video Miss You more than a fortnight ago with an ‘A’ certificate and one cut. Why the hue and cry now? I am afraid filmmakers will have to find other ways of getting noticed. Blaming the censor board to draw attention to your work just won’t work,” Nihalani said.