#afsos

C*nsorship

A struggle many creators have faced while publishing their works is dealing with censorship. Unlike western cinema, we have completely different views on movies with mature content such as cursing, nudity, and sex. The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), whose current chairman is Prasoon Joshi, has a continuous streak of being unforgiving towards mature content like sex, nudity, and language. Gulabi Aaina, Paanch, Udta Punjab, Lipstick Under My Burkha there are so many more movies that CBFC demanded cuts from or banned completely. Even western films like Blue Jasmine and The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo chose not to release their films in India because they needed to either censor themselves or cut crucial scenes. This kind of censoring suppresses the artistic voices of creators and not to mention deletes important scenes that contributes to the overall plot. But this is a different case with OTT platforms. See, the CBFC only overlooks movies that actually release in theaters, hence the movies getting a theatrical release ends up heavily censored. However, with OTT platforms are mostly free of that restriction, which allows the film creators to express their unfiltered artistic voices with no limitations.

Opportunity For Talent

From Varun Dhawan to Sonam Kapoor, the industry’s highest grossing movies and the list of a-listers are plagued with hints of nepotism. Every year, there is new talent who get ignored and are given minor roles they clearly dislike. Since most of these movies that have star kids in them get a theatrical release, people saw a shift to the right direction when online streaming platforms began producing their own shows and movies. For one, they began giving titular roles in major movies and shows to outsiders. A few I can think of are Bulbbul, Jamtara: Sabka Number Ayega, Afsos, and Criminal Justice. This allows these often ignored actors to prove their acting chops and gain a fan following. Also recently, many of these shows began casting talented actors who don’t receive much work in the industry because they are considered either too old or too irrelevant. Some of these include Abhishek Bachchan in Breathe, Sushmita Sen in Aarya, Bobby Deol in Class of ‘83, and Shefali Shah in Delhi Crime. Although many of these people mentioned here are products of nepotism, they do possess talent that is worth acknowledging in some shape or form.

Convenient & Safe

Now, this topic is more so relating to the current state of the pandemic right now rather than the normal day-to-day life because let’s be honest: not many people can afford proper internet connection let alone a Netflix or Hotstar account. Considering the state of social distancing, going to movie theaters isn’t really the best choice and thankfully many people recognize that. Since people are spending more and more time in their home, they have nothing but the internet to get entertainment from. While there is other online entertainment available other than these sites such as YouTube or Tiktok, people crave some high quality media sometime and that is made accessible through online streaming platforms. Cinema-goers can get the same if not higher quality of movies and show through the comfort of their own couch that isn’t K3G on Star Gold for the umpteenth time. 

Conclusion