Rakhi And ishQ Take Legal Action On Censor Board

Rakhi And ishQ Take Legal Action On Censor Board
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In a swift move that has taken the entire film industry by surprise, firebrand Rakhi Sawant and singer-composer-lyricist ishQ Bector, have gone ahead and taken legal action on the industry’s regulatory body, the Censor Board.

Recently, the Board passed a diktat that the word ‘kamine’ be deleted or bleeped out from the mukhda (opening verse) of ‘Bhoot’; Rakhi and ishQ’s latest video from their album titled ‘Jhagde’, released by Pen Music.

Challenging the Censors’ decision, the duo, who are also the producers of the album, have sent a Show Cause Notice to the Board.

“The Censors clearly have double standards,” shoots Rakhi. “When they can pass an entire film called ‘Kaminey’, what sense does it make to delete the word ‘kamine’ from our video, and that too, without giving us any reason whatsoever,” she fumes.

The mukhda of the song goes ‘Kamine tera bhoot chad gaya re.’ “But after the word being bleeped out, our song looks completely disjointed. This has killed its impact and sabotaged our album sales,” says ishQ, who has also written the lyrics.

“Apart from the UTV movie by the same name, the word ‘kamine’, having the same interpretation and meaning, has been passed by the Board in umpteen films before,” he stresses. Strangely, the Board has passed the ‘promos’ of the number containing the mukhda, without any cuts, while censoring the word only in the ‘video’. “Does the Censor Board have different norms for films, videos and promos? Or is it that we are being singled out just because we are smaller producers?” questions ishQ.

“The Censors are not only being unjust and biased, they are making a mockery of morality,” adds Rakhi.

The duo’s advocate Rizwan Siddiquee says, “No act of commission or omission on the part of the Censor Board, or any officer representing it, should be arbitrary, unjust or in manner be biased or sexist. The Board needs to fully understand that its acts could willfully prejudice the fundamental rights of an aggrieved party and therefore it should act accordingly.”

This is surely not the first instance the Censor Board has come under such criticism. From time to time, many producers have lamented about its arbitrary acts and calls for random cuts. Though not many have dared to actually go ahead with legal action, which makes it worth watching, how the Censor Board will react or counter Rakhi and ishQ’s charges.