Censor Board refuses to certify Malayalam LGBT film, says it is 'ridiculing, insulting Hindu religion'

"It is unfortunate that CBFC is being used as a tool to propagate homophobia and sexual bigotry," the director of KaBodyscapes said.

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The Censor Board has refused to certify for public exhibition "KaBodyscapes", a Malayalam feature film revolving around the lives of two gay men and a woman in Kerala. The board has stated that the film is "ridiculing, insulting and humiliating Hindu religion, in particular portraying Hindu Gods in poor light".



Prathibha A, the regional officer of the Censor Board, in a letter, wrote, "Derogatory words are against women. The Hindu God ‘Hanuman’ is shown as coming in the Books titled ‘I am a Gay’ and other homo-sexual books. The film has also references to lady masturbating, highlighting ‘Gay’ by many ‘Gay’ posters. The film offends women’s sensibilities by vulgarity, obscenity, or depravity."

Image source: Jayan Cherian/Facebook



The release of the Jayan Cherian-directed film had been stalled for some months now.

The filmmaker took to Facebook to explain that the figure in the movie, referred to as Hanuman by the Censor Board, is actually a different character and not the Monkey God.



Jayan wrote, "Central Board of Film Certification states that we are showing Hindu god Hanuman in a bad light in “KaBodyscapes”. It is not true, the central character in the film is a painter, in one of his paintings he portrays his lover flying with a heap of books, like the mythical Hanuman figure, carry the mountain. There are many titles from the gay literature among the books, and the face of the figure is clearly another character in the film, not the 'Lord Hanuman'.

The painting was exclusively made for the movie by artist MM Manjesh and "it is surprising that CBFC is offended by a painting and book Titles shown in a film," he added.

He also posted the picture along with his Facebook post.

Image source: Jayan Cherian/Facebook

Stating that the makers are planning to move the court against the Board's decision, he said, "CBFC treats being "Gay" as being 'criminal', the film is a same-sex love story, of course, there are several gay characters in it... We believe that we have a right to make our films according to our artistic convictions, and we are not ready to take any editorial advice from the state... It is unfortunate that CBFC is being used as a tool to propagate homophobia and sexual bigotry."

In an interview to The News Minute earlier this month, Jayan spoke about the hassles he was facing to get his film released in India and blamed the Censor Board for being "feudal, homophobic and very much misogynist".

Read the interview here: Censor Board is feudal, homophobic: Kerala director whose film on gay couple is stalled

“Ka Bodyscapes” is the story of a painter named Haris, Vishnu, a rural kabaddi player and Haris’s lover, and their friend Sia, a woman from a conservative Muslim family questioning patriarchal norms.