Dirty Picture was not a one off last year. One-fifth of all films released in the country last year were classified as “adult” by the Censor Board.
Two hundred of the 1,026 films accorded certification by the Central Board for Film Certification in 2011 were given adult certification. Officials at CBFC stated that the number of adult films also increased as the directors and producers of these films refused to go through the process of cutting their films and removing scenes to seek a universal certification. “They instead went in for an adult certification,” sources said. Sources stated that the number of adult films being released in the country has been increasing gradually over the years. In 2010, the number of adult films certified was approximately 175.
In all, 1,026 films were released in the country till October 2011. Of these, the highest number of films were in Hindi (175), followed by Telugu (157), Tamil (150), Kannada (108), Bangla (100), Marathi (77) and Bhojpuri (64).
Of these films, the Censor board accorded universal certification to 482 films, U/A certification to 344 and adult certification to 200 films. During the year, the board also allowed the release of 210 foreign films of which 84 were classified as adult. In another marked pattern, the board also approved certification of 40 digital films in the same period.