“By bestowing this esteemed honour, you have increased my social responsibility. Rest assured, I will put in my best efforts in building a strong ‘bridge’ linking cinema and society which will also help in boosting economic growth,” responded the newly- appointed Chairman of the Censor Board, Pahlaj Nihalani, after he was honoured last weekend with the prestigious ‘Sindhu Ratna’ Award by the Global Sindhi Council headed by its social crusader Chairman Ram Jawhrani.
The glittering Award-trophy was presented to Pahlaj by star MP Shatrughan Sinha along with legal luminary Ram Jethmalani and actor Govinda.
Known for his outspoken nature, the eminent filmmaker seemed disappointed with the recent crop of Hindi movies flopping very badly.
“Being an integral part of the cine-biz fraternity it’s so disheartening that the box-office success ratio (only 10 to 12 per cent according to cine-trade sources) of films is very low. Hypothetically, even if the Censor Board certifies a Bollywood movie which has obscenity, abusive dialogues with an ‘A’ certificate with ‘no cuts’, yet the movie may not run for even four days.
There has been rapid progress in technology which adds immense value to the on-screen showmanship. But most of our producers need to exercise ‘self-censorship’ and realize that quality story-content and good music is the actual ‘star-hero’ and not dare-bare obscenity and not vulgar abuses,” insists the Censor Board chief.