According to Screenwriter Anuraadha Tewari , the museum raised objections to the film over its “sexually explicit content” and said the institution could not take the risk of children walking into a screening. According to Screenwriter Anuraadha Tewari , the museum raised objections to the film over its “sexually explicit content” and said the institution could not take the risk of children walking into a screening. Screenwriter Anuraadha Tewari has alleged that the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (formerly Prince of Wales Museum) forced her to drop the film, Lipstick Under My Burkha, from the line-up of the recent film festival ‘India and the World: The Changing Narrative’. The festival, organised as part of the ongoing exhibition ‘India and the World: A History in Nine Stories’ at CSMVS, took place from January 12 to 14 and was intended as a platform to discuss the various changes sweeping through recent Indian cinema. The films screened were Newton, Mukti Bhawan, Qarib Qarib Singlle, Ajji, A Death In The Gunj and Bareilly Ki Barfi, with Lipstick Under My Burkha being replaced by Lagaan. According to Tewari, who curated the festival, the initial list of films, which was given to the museum in October included Lipstick Under My Burkha and elicited no objection. Her team then gathered the required permissions for screening and the final list was shared with the museum on December 12. “However around the 28th of Dec when asked about the invites and the media plan, i was told that we cannot screen Lipstick Under my Burkha. We had a a huge argument over this on telecons and mails for almost another week till my options were to either cancel the entire Festival in protest or simply apologize to the filmmaker and her team. I did the latter and they were very sweet and kind about it. It would have been unfair to everyone else if I did so as Festival Director. So we went ahead with Lagaan, which was also on my list earlier and permissions had been taken as a standby,” Tewari said in an email to The Indian Express. According to her, the museum raised objections to the film over its “sexually explicit content” and said the institution could not take the risk of children walking into a screening. When contacted, CSMVS director Sabyasachi Mukherjee said the whole issue had been caused by a “communication gap”. “When the contents of the film were shared with our education department, they felt that the adult content of the film was very strong. We have a major exhibition going on right now and many of our visitors are children. And we don’t have areas in the museum that are demarcated for adult and children’s content. So, the education department shared their concerns with the festival consultant Pallavi Sharma, who probably couldn’t explain it properly to Anuraadha.” Mukherjee said the allegation of censorship levelled against the museum by Tewari was unfair. “We had said that if films with adult certification are being screened, then the advertising should say that, so that those below 18 are not allowed in the screening. But that didn’t happen because of lack of communication. Otherwise, why would we object to a film that has already been certified by the film certification board?. We are the only museum to organise a film festival like this and if Anuraadha is willing, we welcome her to organise more such events,” he said. Tewari, however, rejected the explanation proffered to her by the museum and pointed out that the final line-up also included Ajji, which has scenes of graphic violence. “The archaic, patriarchal and culture-nazi stance is what is most disturbing from a Curator of the Arts,” she wrote. Directed by Alankrita Shrivastava, Lipstick Under My Burkha was in the eye of a storm last year after the CBFC refused to clear the movie on grounds of it having “sexual scenes” and “audio pornography”. The film, which explores how four small town Indian women break out of their restrictions, was eventually granted ‘A’ certificate after the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal overruled the CBFC’s decision. For all the latest Mumbai News, download Indian Express App

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