The film industry is currently facing issues of censor print of movies being leaked online, but the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has denied any involvement in it. .
Last month, "Udta Punjab" was leaked online before its release. "Udta Punjab" was in controversy after censor board ordered several cuts. The Bombay High Court later cleared the film, but before its release, it made its way to movie downloading site -- torrent. This month, adult comedy "Great Grand Masti" has been leaked online two weeks before its scheduled release. The leaked print of the adult comedy had "censor board copy" written on it. Due to the leak, the makers Balaji Productions had to advance the release date of the film.
Also, Salman Khan's "Sultan," which has been creating records, was leaked online. Though the movie was not available on torrent, it was available on the darknet (dark net).
After these leaks fingers were pointed at CBFC, as "Udta Punjab" and "Great Grand Masti" censor copy was leaked. But the CEO of CBFC, Anurag Shrivastava, has denied such claims.
"In the case of 'Udta Punjab', we had explained that the film had come in the form of hard disc in the movie format, shown to us and taken back. At no point was it ever handled by us. The first time it came in our possession was when the certificate was issued and that was at 6pm on the day when it had already been leaked online," Anurag told DNA.
"As for 'Great Grand Masti', the film came only once to us and that was on January 19. It was shown to us and was refused the certificate (they had ordered several cuts). The film didn't come to us for revising, the makers went straight to the Tribunal. On March 23 or 24 the Tribunal passed an order (they upturned the cuts ordered by CBFC) and we issued the certificate subsequently on April 1. At the same time we sealed the final version of the DVD, got it signed by the applicant and saved it under lock and key in the record room. There has been no tampering or anything of that sort. I don't see any way this could have leaked from our side," he added justifying censor board's side.
When asked why the leaked copy has "censor board" written on it, he replied that the producer of the film writes "censor copy" on the film before sending for certification. Moreover, the censor board gets 2000 films for certification, so why would they be interested in leaking only "Udta Punjab" and "Great Grand Masti," he said.
