Celebrated female empowerment film banned in India

Filmmaker Alankrita Shrivastava has vowed to challenge Indian censorship officials’ decision to ban her female empowerment movie Lipstick Under My Burkha.
Bosses at India’s Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) cited the critically-acclaimed drama’s “sexual scenes, abusive words, audio pornography” and “visuals or words contemptuous of racial, religious or other groups” in their decision to deny the project a theatrical release.
However, writer/director Shrivastava is convinced the CBFC representatives are too stuck in their ways to understand the purpose of Lipstick Under My Burkha, which follows the secret lives of four Indian women of different generations as they seek various forms of freedom.
She told Variety.com, “This is an attack on women’s right to tell their stories, from a female perspective. It is also a clear attack on the freedom of expression.
“India is so steeped in its discrimination against women, it becomes evident in such decisions. In a country where there is so much violence against women, and such double standards for women, rather than encourage women’s stories told by women themselves, our stories are stifled.”
Insisting she will fight the ruling, she added, “I will battle this out and do whatever it takes to ensure that audiences in India can watch the film.”
Lipstick Under My Burkha has already been feted with the Spirit of Asia award at the 2016 Tokyo International Film Festival and the Oxfam Award for best film on gender equality at the Mumbai Film Festival in India. It will have its U.K. premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival in Scotland on Friday (24Feb17).