It’s almost a pattern now: a director with a mature film goes to the most regressive and conservative Censor Board in recent history, already having announced the release date.

The Board then rejects the movie, sending the filmmaker into a media frenzy. HuffPo articles come out condemning the ‘ban’. The director furiously retweets every piece on the Internet bemoaning the rejection. National dailies’ editorials question the existence of a Censor Board in the first place.

Applications are sent to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) or to a High Court, depending on the clout of the producer. A compromise is arrived at — some cuts and disclaimers in exchange for a release. Begrudgingly, the director puts on a public show of celebration, and the movie comes out censored anyway, diluting the victory and defeating the principles of free expression on which the fight was waged in the first place.

Rinse and repeat.

Legitimising censorship

It happened with Anurag Kashyap’s Ugly, it happened to Udta Punjab, and it happened with Haraamkhor. Now it just happened with Lipstick Under My Burkha. Many documentaries are navigating their way through that process too.

Even with an ‘A’ certificate, the Lipstick team has agreed to multiple cuts in the movie, though they won’t really disclose what those cuts are. This is precisely the sort of spineless subjugation that reinforces the legitimacy of the Censor Board. While that might sound counter-intuitive, think about it: if filmmakers fought protracted public battles against the Censor Board, and ultimately end up accepting cuts from the FCAT or a court, aren’t they implicitly legitimizing censorship as a necessary concept, even if in moderation?

This is what tainted the Udta Punjab ruling — the court ruled in favour of the drug problem in Punjab being portrayed cinematically, not in favour of freedom of speech. In fact, the court actually asked for a cut in the movie, which decimated the case’s usability as precedent in future freedom of speech-related disputes.

But what about the ₹₹₹?

Even as early as 2014, I would begrudgingly empathize with filmmakers who compromised on censorship in favour of getting their films released.

But a lot has changed in three years.

Right now, there are multiple streaming platforms that would pay good money — better than theatrical revenue, even — for a film like Lipstick. Netflix, especially, works internationally with enough money to double an indie studio’s investment in a movie’s budget. That’s something an Indian theater-going audience will never manage to pony up, simply because of how cheap Indian movie tickets are.

But with something like Netflix, filmmakers don’t even need a theatrical release. Is it good to see your movie in the big screen and rake in theatrical revenue? Sure. But at the cost of reinforcing the legitimacy of pre-censorship of cinema? I don’t see the financial or moral sense in doing that.

Go digital or go home

Indian filmmakers would very much like there to be no Censor Board. Perhaps if many of our films came out online, safely outside the purview of the Board, legislators might question the existence of that institution. But our filmmakers care less about principles and more about seeing what they have made — even if butchered into submission — on a big screen.

Producers are equally, if not more, to blame here — you finance a movie with mature themes and a small budget and feel entitled to a theatrical release? I’m sorry, but have you even read the news lately? And you do know how much $$$ (not ₹₹₹) you can make from an online release, right? You do know that it is way more than what you’d make on the big screen in India, right? You do know that the movie will go directly to international audiences, right? Then what the hell are you doing making compromises with the devil?

As long as this culture of accepting censorship, no matter how mild, continues, I think it is moral to theatrically boycott movies that make that compromise, while pretending that they have won some huge battle for freedom of expression. And Lipstick Under My Burkha made that compromise.

Who knows, perhaps the movie will come out uncensored on Netflix a month after it releases butchered in theaters. I’ll probably watch it if that happens. If it comes out on Amazon, it will be censored, which means that, at least for me, the boycott will continue.