Plea Seeking Statutory Warning For Violent Movie Scenes Withdrawn After Madras High Court Warns Of Imposing Costs

A litigant on Wednesday withdrew his petition in Madras High Court seeking directions to the Central Board of Film Certification to telecast statutory warning with the words "Knives and Sickles used in this movie are made of paper and colour water is used as blood" in forthcoming films.

The plea was withdrawn after the bench of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N Mala warned of dismissing the plea with costs. The bench observed that the petition was moved merely for publicity and without any materials.

S Gopikrishnan, party in person, submitted before the court that school-going students were carrying arms and knives in their bags instead of books while going to school.

"Can you name one such instance where a child was carrying knives instead of books?...No document has been referred to show that the children are carrying arms instead of books. These sentences are incorrect facts," the court observed. 

The litigant, in his affidavit, had stated that youngsters between the age of 16 to 35 years were getting involved in crimes of serious nature after being influenced by movies. These youngsters, after watching movies of actors, try to imitate the same in real life also and end up committing crimes of serious nature, it was alleged. 

Gopikrishnan stated that the movies created fight scenes to attract the fans into the movie theatres. These fans end up believing the same and try to imitate the same in real life and get caught by the police thus spoiling their life.

He also gave examples of recent incidents in Chennai and Delhi. In Chennai, college-going students were engaged in a fight using big knives, sickles etc., and created havoc in the metro. In Delhi, a group of youngsters was involved in murder after watching movie "Pushpa".

Highlighting that the certification by CBFC is appealable, the court suggested that in case the litigant had a complaint regarding the certification of certain movies, he could challenge the same before the appropriate authority.

Case Title: S Gopikrishnan v. Regional Officer, CBFC and others

Case No: WP No. 11733 of 2022

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw(Mad) 242

Counsel for Petitioner: S Gopikrishnan, Party in person

Counsel for Respondents: Mr.R.Rajesh Vivekananthan, Assistant Solicitor General (R1), Mr.P.Muthukumar, State Government Pleader assisted by Mrs.R.Anitha Spl. Government Pleader