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India's film certification board, better known as the Censor Board, has always faced a lot of flak for their conservatism when it comes to passing adult content. After Nihalani chopped off kissing scenes from James Bond movie Spectre, many slammed him for moral policing in films. In fact, many from the board itself targeted him, saying he was exploiting his “personal fiefdom”. And now, according to an exclusive Hindustan Times report, the board has accepted the recommendations of a government-appointed panel to introduce new movie categories.

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The basic aim of introducing new categories is to put an end to chopping off scenes and muting words that have been tagged as 'offensive' by the Censor Board.

After Nihalani's back-to-back blunders of chopping off scenes and threatening the artistic freedom of speech and expression of filmmakers, the BJP-led government had appointed a panel led by acclaimed filmmaker Shyam Benegal. The panel recently submitted its report to the Centre on restructuring the Cinematography Act and Rules, under which films are categorised depending on the nature of content, including adult themes.

The report further claimed that after CBFC's approval of introducing new categories, this recommendation will now be passed on to the information and broadcasting ministry.

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All the changes will be implemented after amendments to the 1952 Cinematograph Act.

The report states, 'The recommendations made by the Benegal committee includes Dividing the U and UA Categories to – UA12+ and UA15+ and the A category to be sub-divided into A and AC (adult with caution) categories. The proposed A/C category will not include pornography but will be a certificate for films with explicit sexual content or nudity. Pornographic films or those that hurt religious sentiments or harm national security will not be eligible for certification.'