July 8th of 2025 will be a red letter day for Censorship of films India. Reason, it is the day Censor Board added a religious/communal dimension (code) to its guidelines publicly, while firmly opposing the name and contents of a Malayalam film 'JSK' (Janaki vs State of Kerala), which since then released ten days later with a modified name 'Janaki V'. And the film so far has created no public disorder or hurt any religious sentiments of anyone so far, as claimed by the Censor board while justifying its objection to the name of the Character in the film in its sworn affidavit before the High Court of Kerala.

But the Chief Executive Officer of the Censor board, in the affidavit reveals its new code in the guidelines of film censorship. "In the subject of the film, when the lead character who is named after Goddess Sita/Janaki is raped, she is then aided by a man belonging to one particular religious community and is cross examined and asked harrowing questions by a person belonging to another religious community. This religious dichotomy in the treatment of a character bearing Goddess Sita; a sacred name has the potential to inflame communal tensions and create divisive narrative religious groups".

The objection of the censors is not just to the name of the character in the film 'Janaki', but to the religious identity of the lawyers representing her and also cross examining her, making it abundantly clear the new emerging narrative of segregation of people in India on religious lines. The question is, has the Censor Board now subscribed to this religious segregation in film characters as a guideline while passing films?

One can vaguely accept the fact that since the Malayalam film is to be dubbed in all major languages of India for OTT screenings and there can be objections to the name Janaki from regions other than Kerala. But the censors believe that the name Janaki indeed is that of the Goddess 'Sita' and can lead to 'public disorder' among an 'average moral man'.

Notable is the fact that the filmmakers have not used the name 'Sita' or claimed any association of 'Goddess Sita' to 'Janaki', the rape victim in the film. But the learned CEO of the censor board goes on to say, "While both films use the film 'Janaki' in JSK,........

© Mathrubhumi English