'Jana Nayagan' row: Ram Gopal Varma targets CBFC; says 'Censor board is outdated'

As the legal issue around Vijay’s 'Jana Nayagan' continues in court, filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has stepped in with a strong opinion. He did not talk only about one film or one actor. He spoke about the entire idea of censorship in India. RGV said the Central Board of Film Certification has no real use today. He called it outdated and said it has crossed its expiry date.



The Madras High Court heard the CBFC’s appeal against the earlier order that supported 'Jana Nayagan'. The Chief Justice-led bench looked closely at how urgent the appeal really was. The court also checked whether the CBFC got a fair chance to present its arguments. Reportedly the next hearing is set for January 21.

RGV says the Censor Board has outlived its purpose

In his tweet, RGV wrote clearly that the censor board is no longer needed. He said, "CENSOR BOARD is OUTDATED Not in the context of just @Actor_Vijay ‘s #JanaNayagan ‘s censor issues but in an overall manner." He added that it is foolish to think the board is still relevant today.

RGV also blamed the film industry for staying silent. He said the system continues only because people are too lazy to question it. According to him censorship made sense in the past, but not in the present world where content is everywhere and available to all at any time.

Internet age makes censorship pointless

RGV explained how today’s digital world has no gatekeepers. He wrote, "We live in a time where a 12-year old with a phone can watch a terrorist execution filmed on a GoPro, a 9-year-old can stumble upon hardcore porn." He also said anyone can watch extremist videos or conspiracy content freely.

He pointed out that all of this is uncut and uncensored. At the same time, abusive language is common on TV debates and social media platforms. RGV said if people still argue that cinema is powerful, they must remember that social media has far more reach than films today.

He questioned the logic of censoring films when everything else is free online. According to him, believing that small cuts in movies can protect society is not serious thinking at all.

Trust the viewer, not the scissors

RGV said censorship today is not about protection but about pretending to have control. He wrote, "What the censor board actually does now is not protection, but only theatrics." He added that censorship assumes people are children forever.

He said cinema is not meant to teach lessons like a classroom. "They are mirrors, view points, expressions and opinions meant to entertain." He strongly said that the job of authorities is not to cut films but to trust people to decide for themselves.

RGV supported age classification and content warnings. But he clearly said censorship does not work. He compared the censor board to a watchman guarding a building with broken walls. In the end, he asked whether the authorities and the film industry have the courage to admit that the censor board no longer fits today’s world.

RGV ended the Tweet by saying, "The world has already moved on to so many platforms which are unfiltered and unsupervised and so the painful question is whether the authorities have the courage to admit that they are obsolete, and more than that, whether we as a film industry collectively have the will to question them on the same

So instead of raising this topic once in a while over a particular film , the fight should be with that particular system of thinking which created the censor board."