Currently OTTs are experiencing free reign when it comes to showing content throughout India (and even around the world, for the most part) without any government entities placing any major restrictions. But with the current climate and multiple complaints demanding a government-appointed board to certify every video content available for viewing, let’s see what could be the possible state of our OTT landscape.
First of all, censorship is actually important for mainly two reasons. One reason is to show parents the type of content they are allowing their children to watch and for them to decide if the video is good enough for their children to view. Another reason is for adults who do not like a particular type of adult genre – be it nudity, sexual situations, blood, gore, horror, explicit language, drugs, etc. and to provide sufficient warning for them, if they do not wish to view such content. When used for the right reasons, censorship can be a good thing and be helpful to society; which was why it was created by the government in the first place (for theater-showing films at least).
But with the rise of international shows such as ‘Game of Thrones’, ‘Spartacus’, ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Mad Men’ among many others which have popularized the adult genre to a level that even many child-centric shows have started portraying about “safer adult topics” like gore, blood, and drugs. This can be a good and bad thing simultaneously; if the show is responsible, then it can be an educational experience for children, otherwise, the entire thing could end up being glorified.
These shows have also given way to amazing Indian content such as ‘Sacred Games’, ‘The Family Man’, ‘Made In Heaven’, ‘Four More Shots Please’ and more, allowing Indian filmmakers to express their creativity which has a global outreach. The problem with Indian censorship is that it only has primarily three levels of rankings – U – Allowed for all.
A – Adult.
UA – For anyone above 12, all remaining younger audiences should be accompanied by an adult.
The problem with the above certification is without proper specification, labeling a video or show A or UA, will be detrimental to the content creators. At least the current OTT platforms mention the possible adult content/ hard content at the very beginning so responsible adults know what they are going to be watching
Indian censorship has always been suspect at best. If any movie is not acknowledged as U or UA, then no theaters will think of taking up the movie for fear of losing the audience. Luckily there is no such fear in the digital streaming space. If we have a responsible board, there should virtually be no changes, except for maybe a two day delay for releasing digital content due to censorship.
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