Mumbai:
The censor board today said that they had taken cognizance of corruption charges against some of its officials by Tamil actor Vishal. The film board though specified that the personnel Vishal had mentioned were unauthorised third-party vendors.
“At the outset, it must be noted that the personnel mentioned are not CBFC officials but unauthorized third-party intermediaries. However, the issue is being investigated with immense gravity. We will get to the root of this, and strict action will be taken accordingly,” the film board’s chief Prasoon Joshi said in a statement.
“Feedback has been welcomed and the best practises incorporated in managing the Board and the Body. Any and every measure will be taken to ensure that the functioning is unmitigated,” he added.
Actor Vishal had posted a long video on X accusing two individuals from the censor board seeking a bribe to certify the Hindi version of his new film ‘Mark Antony’. The video triggered a swift response by the ruling BJP, with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry rushing a senior officer to Mumbai to “conduct an inquiry”.
“We applied for film certification online… we had to do it last minute because of some technical issues but were taken aback by what happened. when my agent visited the CBFC office we were given no option but to pay Rs 6.5 lakh to get the certificate by the evening. First told we had to pay Rs 3 lakh for the film to be viewed and then Rs 3.5 lakh for the certificate,” he said in the video.
Prasoon Joshi, in his statement today, said that CBFC would be making some changes to strengthen the process at the organisatonal level to eliminate third-part interference.
In one such change, he said all the necessary documents would have to be uploaded online during the application process and physical documents would not be accepted later.
