Director: Indian censors want 'cow', 'Hindu' bleeped in film
NEW DELHI: Indian censors have refused to certify a documentary film featuring Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen unless words like "cow" and "Hindu India" are bleeped out, the director said on Wednesday.
Mr Suman Ghosh, a national award-winning director, said he screened his film The Argumentative Indian - adapted from Mr Sen's book of the same title - for censors in Kolkata, India, on Tuesday.
After three hours of viewing, officials asked him to delete the terms "cow" - an animal considered sacred for Hindus - "Hindu India" and "Gujarat".
The documentary had been set for release this weekend.
Filmed over the course of more than 15 years, Mr Ghosh's new work mainly features Mr Sen, a vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Mr Kaushik Basu, who was chief economic adviser to India's last Congress-led government, in a conversation that ranges from economics and philosophy to the global rise of right-wing nationalism.
Mr Ghosh, who said he will not make any cuts, added that he is yet to receive an official notice from the Central Board of Film Certification. - AFP
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