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Why ban 'India's Daughter'? Questions remain
Film celebrities like
Madhoo and Soha Ali Khan on Friday continued to question the viability
of the ban on the broadcast of "India's Daughter", a documentary based
on the December 16, 2012 gang rape in Delhi.
Actress Soha Ali
Khan, daughter of former Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC)
chairperson Sharmila Tagore, tweeted: "Pls see Leslee Udwin's doc
India's Daughter-we need to understand why rape happens so often in this
country Only then can we find a solution."
The documentary, by
British filmmaker Leslee Udwin, has grabbed eyeballs for including an
interview with a rapist, one of the six men who raped the 23-year-old
trainee physiotherapist on December 16, 2012 in a moving bus in Delhi.
The victim later died of her injuries.
The central government on
Thursday served a legal notice to the BBC in connection with the
documentary, which was also uploaded on video sharing website YouTube by
an individual and received reactions from all quarters.
While
some people are slamming the documentary for giving a platform to a
rapist, others are applauding it for telling a truth in its entirety.
Actor-filmmaker Lakshmy Ramakrishnan wonders "what we are trying to hide" by banning a film like this.
"If
it has to create public disorder, so be it. Only when people know what
really happened with the girl, we as a country realise the value we give
to women. This documentary may not prevent such crimes from happening
again, but it would at least educate and make us understand about the
heinous incident," Ramakrishnan said.
Questioning the very reason
why permission was granted for the film to be made, she added: "Our
government doesn't mind banning porn websites but has issues with such a
documentary, despite granting permission to be made in the first place.
All of us have the right to information, and nobody can stop someone
from accessing it."
Actress Madhoo believes in the creative
freedom of a filmmaker, but she feels "India's Daughter" has given voice
to a rapist -- which she objects to.
"I totally believe every
filmmaker should be given the creative freedom and right to show what
they want to show. But as a viewer, I'll choose what I want to see...I
feel it's unfair to ban this documentary.
"Having said that, I'm a
mother and I fear for my daughters' safety. And I strongly object to
the platform these rapists have been given to voice their opinions," she
said.
"By putting these criminals on camera, you're giving them
an opportunity to be popular. Should society really need to hear what
they have to say? I don't think all crimes have to be dealt with
publicly. I don't want to wake up and read a cover story on what the
rapist had to say about a crime he committed two years ago," she added.
Livid
over the ban, filmmaker Sangeeth Sivan opined: "In India, it is not
easy to stop a rape happening every 20 minutes, but its very easy to Ban
a Movie like #indiasdaughter in less than 20 mts."
Jewellery
designer Farah Khan Ali described the documentary as "an actual
representation of d repressed & hypocritical views of mass India. A
society where women r 2nd class."
Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt makes a
pertinent point when he says: "A flourishing Democracy relies upon
access to a wide range of opinions and sources of information. Our laws
& our guardians of culture sometimes silence opinions in a manner
that they hurt the democratic spirit of our nation."