Nitin B | The News Minute | February 3, 2015 | 2:30 pm IST
Pavan Kalyan and Venkatesh starrer 'Gopala Gopala' has run into more trouble as the Hyderabad High Court permitted a fresh petition seeking a ban on the screening of the film.
"Gopala Gopala" is the remake of Bollywood hit "Oh My God". Produced by Suresh Babu, the Telugu version stars actors Pawan Kalyan and Venkatesh.
A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court comprising of Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar on Monday permitted a petition by C. Raghunatha Rao, a resident of the city.
He urged the court to direct the makers of the movie to withdraw the film from theatres until re-certification of the film by the Central Board of Film Certification.
However, the bench pointed out that it could not grant any order, without making the producer and director of the film as a party to the case and permitted the submission of a fresh petition, wherein the people concerned could be summoned.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samithi (BGUS) had earlier, also urged the CBFC not to clear the film which had "objectionable" scenes.
This development comes as the Maharashtra government and Mumbai police have initiated separate investigations into allegations of "abusive and filthy" language used by Bollywood director Karan Johar and actors Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh at an event in Mumbai in December.
Following complaints about the below-the-belt contents of the "AIB Roast" programme viewed by a 4,000-strong live audience in a city stadium, Education and Culture Minister Vinod Tawde ordered a probe.
'Freedom of Speech' in the recent past, has stirred up many controversies in India, the most recent one being the case of Tamil author Perumal Murugan, who had been forced to flee from his hometown of Tiruchengode in Namakkal district, along with his family over the contents of his book Mathorubhagan (One Part Woman).
In the last week of December 2014, groups of people assembled in the town burnt copies of his book and demanded a ban on the book. From threatening, abusive calls made to him, to instigative posters put up all across the town, members belonging to Hindutva organisations like the Hindu Munnani and RSS along with caste groups protested resulting in a complete bandh in the village.
Under Indian law, the freedom of speech does not confer an absolute right to express one's thoughts freely. Clause (2) of Article 19 of the Indian constitution enables the legislature to impose certain restrictions on free speech on grounds of security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency and morality, contempt of court, defamation, incitement to an offence, and the sovereignty and integrity of India.
When it comes to freedom of expression in art – be it writing, drawing / painting, filmmaking – the complaints are usually made out on grounds that the work of art is 'Indecent and Immoral' or the trump card - 'hurt to religious sentiments’.
Though certain content is considered inappropriate for a certain age group, on the grass root level, aren't these terms subjective to an individual? What one considers indecent, may not be the same for another.
Notions of decency and indecency, of ethics and morality, constantly evolve in societies through a mix of social change and law. A case in point is the recent roast by AIB. The idea is to subject two people, who agree to it, to a comic roast: a no-holds-barred joke fest, where nothing is below the belt, or too vulgar.
While sexual mores appear to have evolved to be more accepting of certain expressions, it appears that people (very often groups of young and middle-aged men) are still taking offence on behalf of gods and women, and it is getting stronger and stronger.