Censorship On DVDs Released In India

[Jay5150]

Has anyone else noticed this?
I noticed this while I was watching the "Up In The Air' DVD (BIG Home Video 90028)
It was just a small bit where they cut a scene showing Vera Farmiga's naked behind. I guess I would not have noticed it if I hadn't seen the downloaded DVDrip prior to purchase.
Not that it was plot essential but somehow I feel something missing from the movie now that I know something was cut.
Is this the case in all India releases? I haven't gone through all my India DVDs to check. e.g. My copy of the Thomas Crown Affair (Excel 2in1pk w/ Ronin) seems to be untouched
But this definite step down in the India release by our "middleman" is irritating.

I still remember the old hideous Eros release of Kill Bill Vol.2 I had with scrolling Airtel ads! yuck!

Then I will have resort to buying all my DVDs/BDs from Amazon.

 

[deba]

Almost all DVDs and Blu Rays available in India officialy has to go through CBFC clearance and they edit the film mercilessly to satisfy their thirst for destruction of creativity!!

 

[malvai]

Almost all DVDs and Blu Rays available in India officialy has to go through CBFC clearance and they edit the film mercilessly to satisfy their thirst for destruction of creativity!!

which is why i personally do not buy any India release of any of the hollywood / foreign language film...

the other reason is that ALL indian releases seem to be a grade lower in resolution/ PQ when compared to the foreign counterparts.

 

[KDM]

This is a problem with blu-ray releases as well. The love scene in Iron Man has been considerably trimmed. I will not even bother to mention The Reader over here. I only purchase classics nowadays, so no butchering...

 

[dillihifi]

Well speaking from the legal angle, all flims / DVDs to be sold or to be imported into India needs to have the censor certificate otherwise the Customs guys can confisticate the goods.

 

[Jay5150]

This is a problem with blu-ray releases as well. The love scene in Iron Man has been considerably trimmed. I will not even bother to mention The Reader over here. I only purchase classics nowadays, so no butchering...

Really? Even the blu-rays?! I almost had bought the Iron Man BD but I decided to hold back. Somehow the Reliance logo is not very comforting to me.

The only Indian BDs I bought were the Disney/Pixar ones: Cars, Ratatouille, Up; they couldn't have cut anything from those could they :sad:? I did buy Inception too could anybody tell me if there are any deficiencies from the Intl edition?

Imdb says The Reader clocks in at 124 min, I guess your copy would be about 90 min

The Indian Consumer seems to be destined to be always treated as second class and almost always by our own swadeshi businesses/franchisees!

Interesting OT cautionary tale: I had ordered a few BDs from Amazon US and wasn't charged any duties. SO I was expecting a refund of the Import Fees Deposit after 60 days as per the rules. When there was no action from their side I contacted Amazon Help through their live chat module and got in touch with one of our own: "Gyaneswar" who was very insistent that that the deposit couldn't be refunded as it was, in his words, "paid to our government" Ha ha. He offered to refund half of the amount!! I then cut the interaction short fired off an email to Amazon US and the full deposit was credited in my account with in 6 hours! I think Amazon has one of the best customer services anywhere.

 

[idlebrain]

Considering the BLURAY, I agree with Reader as it is authored/Produced by Indian Company for Indian release of BD i.e Eagle and Digital Entertainment.
But with the rest of the releases from BHV, EXCEL, Sony..I highly doubt it.
I got couple of titles from the above Companies and haven't noticed any Censor Cuts...for Example Fight Club from Excel, It is exact copy of of My US DVD version without any cuts.
In the case of Iron Man if it was trimmed in any particular scene it might be the case with the US or UK release.Normally BHV Bluray copies comes from mostly US or UK releases.

 

[KDM]

But with the rest of the releases from BHV, EXCEL, Sony..I highly doubt it.
I got couple of titles from the above Companies and haven't noticed any Censor Cuts...for Example Fight Club from Excel, It is exact copy of of My US DVD version without any cuts.
In the case of Iron Man if it was trimmed in any particular scene it might be the case with the US or UK release.Normally BHV Bluray copies comes from mostly US or UK releases.

Really? Then why are there no menus in the Atonement DVD? And why are there only Arabic (Persian !?!?!) subtitles as the only subtitle option? Also, why is the love scene between Keira Knightly and James McAvoy trimmed on the DVD? The worst part of it is that there is NO nudity in that particular scene.

In the case of Iron Man if it was trimmed in any particular scene it might be the case with the US or UK release.Normally BHV Bluray copies comes from mostly US or UK releases.

Robert Downey Jr.'s romp with the blonde reporter is cut noticably short on the Indian blu-ray. I've seen the pirated version on DVD and that particular scene seemed to be longer on the said DVD.


Easiest way to determine if they were trimming DVDs would be to check out "Titanic". If Winslet's full frontal scene is missing from the local DVD, then they're into shearing our local DVDs and blu-rays.

 

[idlebrain]

Really? Then why are there no menus in the Atonement DVD? And why are there only Arabic (Persian !?!?!) subtitles as the only subtitle option? Also, why is the love scene between Keira Knightly and James McAvoy trimmed on the DVD? The worst part of it is that there is NO nudity in that particular scene.

Easiest way to determine if they were trimming DVDs would be to check out "Titanic". If Winslet's full frontal scene is missing from the local DVD, then they're into shearing our local DVDs and blu-rays.

Dear KDM..
I am talking about the Bluray discs here, not the DVDs. Its the universal truth that every Indian DVD is got censored since ages its not some thing that happening recently...from the days of Basic Instinct ( This is the first movie we were disappointed during college days :sad. There is nothing much to discuss about DVD censorship.
Every example I have given there is about Blu ray Disc...If you found any such trimming in Blu rays please enlighten us. I don't mind doubble dipping the same tittle if I am missing few secs compared to US/UK releases.

 

[KDM]

Dear KDM..
I am talking about the Bluray discs here, not the DVDs. Its the universal truth that every Indian DVD is got censored since ages its not some thing that happening recently...from the days of Basic Instinct ( This is the first movie we were disappointed during college days :sad. There is nothing much to discuss about DVD censorship.
Every example I have given there is about Blu ray Disc...If you found any such trimming in Blu rays please enlighten us. I don't mind doubble dipping the same tittle if I am missing few secs compared to US/UK releases.

From my earlier post:

Robert Downey Jr.'s romp with the blonde reporter is cut noticably short on the Indian blu-ray. I've seen the pirated version on DVD and that particular scene seemed to be longer on the said DVD.

Does anyone have a foreign Iron Man blu-ray disc? I can grab the scene using a digital camera and someone having the US/UK BD can verify.

 

[idlebrain]

From my earlier post:



Does anyone have a foreign Iron Man blu-ray disc? I can grab the scene using a digital camera and someone having the US/UK BD can verify.

Probably I will try to get a US bluray Rip for comparison sake and check it. Its PG-13 movie for gods sake.If still it got censored, hope its not, would be very disappointing.

 

[sanjay0864]

But this definite step down in the India release by our "middleman" is irritating.

Hold your politician responsible for this and not the "middleman". It is the regressive, un-democratic censorship laws of this country that are responsible for this. The "middleman" has no choice in this. In fact, I am sure the "middleman" would be more than happy to provide the uncut version. Bottom line is, that we should be fighting to have 'censorship' abolished and in the menatime sticking to only imports of foreign movies.

PS: Censorship is not the same as regulation. There is no reason why we cannot have regulation without 'censorship' as they do in the US. Even more importantly, arguabally 'censorship' for theatrical releases may have some justification, but censorship in home releases, is absolutely undemocratic and an affront to an individual's natural and constitutional rights.

 

[square_wave]

Yup. This is a crazy predicament. It is like tearing a few pages from a novel !
Apart from censorship, there is another issue. In most Indian DVDs, the viewer is forced to watch all the commercials and promotions . You just cannot forward them. You get an obligatory this operation is prohibited message. There needs to be some kind of legislation against this !

My library stocks only US imports )

 

[manny9]

Interesting OT cautionary tale: I had ordered a few BDs from Amazon US and wasn't charged any duties. SO I was expecting a refund of the Import Fees Deposit after 60 days as per the rules. When there was no action from their side I contacted Amazon Help through their live chat module and got in touch with one of our own: "Gyaneswar" who was very insistent that that the deposit couldn't be refunded as it was, in his words, "paid to our government" Ha ha. He offered to refund half of the amount!! I then cut the interaction short fired off an email to Amazon US and the full deposit was credited in my account with in 6 hours! I think Amazon has one of the best customer services anywhere.

How did you came to know that import fees was not charged? I did order 3 blurays from amazon and got refund for one of them....please let me know...thanks

 

[Jay5150]

Hold your politician responsible for this and not the "middleman". It is the regressive, un-democratic censorship laws of this country that are responsible for this. The "middleman" has no choice in this. In fact, I am sure the "middleman" would be more than happy to provide the uncut version... .

Sure, the politician is "responsible". Our censorship laws are a holdover from the past and are archaic. The politicians could be least bothered to take the effort to change it. It is all very arbitrary. I was watching Star World yesterday,I think How I met your mother, and when the character said the words "...third nipple...", the subtitle showed"...third *****.." Bwahahahahaha!

The "middleman", in this case, distributors/media company or whatever are also least bothered, in their case the only thing that matters is the margin, they want to release the item to us at the least possible cost. That is why we get only single disc releases (Bonus Features do not matter), very poor quality packaging and depending on the company very poor transfers/copying.
We never get any of the good multi disc releases.

How did you came to know that import fees was not charged? I did order 3 blurays from amazon and got refund for one of them....please let me know...thanks

If any import duties were charged you are supposed to get receipt showing the customs duty was paid from your courier i.e. DHL. Before this scheme was there you had to pay the amount at the time of delivery to the courier. The Import Fee Deposit will be collected by Amazon but paid up by the courier at the time of customs clearance. Usually, for packages within $100, I believe, they might not bother to charge anything.

 

[blueskip]

i purchased friday the 13 th on dvd 2 disc special edition from big home video and noticed no censors.they have not censored the sex scene in which tits are visible