Movie title: BadhshalaReleased: 2013Catalog: NepaliCountry: NepalRating: PG-13Runtime: 1 hours 40 minutesGenres: Drama / ThrillerStarring: Anup Baral, Arpan Thapa, Dayahang Rai, Khagendra Lamichhane, Sarita Giri, Saugat MallaDirected by: Manoj PanditProduced by: Mohan DotelWritten by: Manoj Pandit
Time again Nepal’s Censor Board is known for acting on the baseless intuition of it’s members. As many of their decision are not based on facts, a protest or judicial decision help them to change their decision. In a latest case, the Board has decided that the tattoo of sun on actress Sushma Karki‘s breast is against patriotic norms.
The decision was made while censoring a movie featuring Sushma in an item dance in her upcoming movie ‘Rajniti’. Although the movie was awarded a PG certificate, the Board has asked the film makers to remove the portions of the movie featuring the actress’ tattoo.sushma karki tattoo
It was not the first time Sushma has shown the tattoo in movies. The posters of her movie ‘Bindaas’ had her featuring the tattoo. But, the Censor Board hadn’t objected on the tattoo at that time.
It is strange to know that the Board is claiming the ownership of an image of a celestial body. Making a tattoo is a personal decision and a human is free to choose what image they want to have on their body. Having a National flag engraved on one’s body is supposed to be patriotic in nature but, the Board official think the opposite.
In my personal opinion, the sun image doesn’t look like the one seen in the flag of Nepal. Even if it were exact copy, that doesn’t mean a Nepali can’t have images on their bodies. These types of decision by the Government body degrade its credibility (if any) further. Some of a few examples of the lack of proper preparation on making decision by the board can be illustrated by the following list:
- The board had to change it’s decision on ‘Dhuwani’ under media pressure.
- Supposedly being 80% vulgar ‘Barbad’ was later awarded ‘A’ certificate.
- Under the pressure of the army ‘Badhshala’ was banned and was later un-banned for no concrete reason.
- The Board had changed it’s decision on ‘Samaya’ after it’s producer and actress Mausami Malla protested.
- Banning of the controversial movie ‘ATM‘ was nullified after the court decided to unban the movie.
By the latest move of the Censor Board, it seems, actresses need to censor pass their tattoos before they sign-in a movie!
Yes, such a thing can only happen in Nepal !!