50 shades of grey

Fifty Shades of Grey may be breaking sales records globally, but India has turned down the screening of the erotic drama.

The Central Board of Film Certification India has banned the release of the globally successful movie in spite of the sexual content and nude scenes voluntarily edited out by the production studios. While the chief executive of the Indian censor board, Shravan Kumar, refused to divulge in the reasons behind the ban of the movie, Comcast Corp, Universal Studios have been given the right to appeal the decision.


Universal Studios has already approached the board to make an appeal for the movie starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, but the response is yet to be announced. Moreover, India is not the only country to ban the movie’s screening due to its highly sexual content. Other countries refusing to allow the screening includeMalaysia, Kenya, Indonesia and China.

It seems ironic for the Indian censor board to ban a movie based on probably the vulgarity card, considering that Bollywood movies are getting vulgar by the day and portraying taboo subjects themselves. However, the big screen adaptation of the bestselling novel, about to earn USD 500 million globally, is not the only one receiving the brunt of the censor board’s tightened guidelines.

Since the change in the membership of the committee this year in January, with Leela Samson and 12 other members resigning, the board has been stricter with the usage of abusive language and sexually explicit scenes in the movie. Recently, a new Indian movie ‘Dum Laga Kay Haisha’ was asked to omit the word ‘Lesbian’ from the movie and another flick, Badmashiyan, was asked to edit out a number of swear words.