Ministry Officials have sent a letter to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) in this regard. The letter states,
“It has been brought to the notice of this Ministry that some production houses, making films on Army theme, are using contents which are distorting the image of the Indian Army. Therefore, the producers of movies/web series etc based on Army theme may be advised to obtain the NOC from Ministry of Defence before the telecast of any movie documentary on Army theme in the public domain.”
The mandatory requirement will also be extended to content streamed on OTT platforms. The move comes in the wake of uproar on social media platforms against a certain web series that had depicted a man performing obscene acts with a woman while wearing the Indian Army uniform. The scene further depicted the woman ripping up the man’s uniform.
A prominent nationalist YouTuber had filed a case against the aforementioned web series for insulting the Indian Army and hurting the sentiments of Indians. The concerned streaming platform had pulled down the offending episode from the erotic series after social media uproar.
This move by the Ministry of Defence will go a long way in avoiding a repeat of such questionable depiction of the Indian Army, its personnel or its uniform. The letter was written by the Under Secretary Sudarshan Kumar. It has also been sent to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.