KARACHI, Aug 11: Zulfiqar Ramzi, honorary chairman of the Sindh Board of Film Censors, does not sit in the SBFC office located on Waheed Murad Road, behind the Mama Parsi Girls’ Secondary School. “The office has no water cooler. The computer system that they have is outdated. There is no air conditioner, but that’s okay one can do without the AC. Other facilities should be there however,” says Mr Ramzi, sitting in his private office in a mall near Do Talwar in Clifton.

“The SBFC secretary sends documents to my office which I go over and then sign accordingly. When I have to view a film to censor it I suggest a date to board members which has four official members and 12 non-official members, including myself. Not all of them have to be present at the time of censoring a film. Three members have to attend the screening,” adds Mr Ramzi, former Star Cinema owner.

After the 18th amendment was passed in 2010, several ministries were devolved at the provincial level, including the culture ministry under which falls the board of film censors. Consequently, the Sindh Motion Pictures Act, 2011 was passed by the provincial assembly and the government under this act formed the Sindh Board of Film Censors, Karachi in May this year.

“So far we have censored nearly 28 films, including English, Indian and Pakistani films,” says Umar Khitab Khan, a non-official member of the SBFC and former member of the Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC) in Islamabad. “Since I am the only Pushto-speaking member of the board I have to be present when Pushto films are screened for censoring. So far we have censored two Pushto films — Sarkar and Love Story,” says Mr Khan, who is also a film journalist. “At the moment the SBFC issues two types of certificates: U and A. The certificate will have a little triangle that indicates some scenes have been cut from the movie. At the back of the certificate, it is specified what words and scenes have been deleted. This is for the inspector who can ask for the certificate in order to check the censoring of the film,” says Mr Ramzi.

Besides the poor condition of the SBFC office, other members of the board lament the lack of a screening room on the SBFC premises to watch films.

“There is no place at the board to facilitate screening of a film. The government should arrange one,” says Saeed Shiraz, a non-official member of the SBFC. “Sometimes we go to the Atrium or Bambino cinema to censor the films. When we go there the exhibitor of the film pays for the refreshments for the board members and the running of the air conditioner adds to his cost. But why should the exhibitor do this for us? It is adding to his expense,” says Mr Ramzi. “The fact of the matter is that the film industry has never been taken seriously as an institution. Karachi has always had a censor office for screening those films produced in the city. But it was never given its own office and is currently functioning from a rented office. The culture department secretary and other officers are working there in gypsy-like conditions,” says Mr Khan.

Another issue for the board members is the low transportation reimbursement. According to Mr Khan since the non-official members especially take time out from their work and have to travel at a great distance to go and watch the films, they should be given higher transport allowance.

“The CBFC members were given 450 rupees per film as transport allowance. But that amount is quite low especially when we have to travel all the way to Musarrat cinema in Nazimabad to censor Pushto films,” says Mr Khan. “Besides, the secretary of culture had sent a suggestion nearly three months ago that this should be revised to about 1,000 to 2,000 rupees per film. However nothing has been done so far and none of us have received any amount of the transport allowance,” he adds.

Meanwhile, when questioned whether the SBFC has banned any film so far, Mr Shiraz says: “We haven’t banned any film because so far the films that have been imported and were shown to us here in Karachi did not have any subject over which we had any serious objections.” The former distributor of films further says: “The board members are all educated, intellectuals, mostly associated with the film business such as Zulfiqar Ramzi, Zeba Bakhtiar and Sania Saeed having respect for producers, importers and exhibitors. Even the government officials who are official members of the board — whether the secretary of the information department or the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) representative in Karachi — each one of them is passionate about films. Whenever the need arises we have a healthy debate over a film and censor accordingly.”

When asked whether it ever occurred that the CBFC had banned a film and the SBFC allowed it to be screened, Mr Khan says: “It hasn’t happened so far, but the situation can arise and this can create quite a controversy.”

With the smooth censoring of 11 Indian films such as Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and Go Goa Gone and 12 English films, including Hangover 3, The Great Gatsby, and five Pakistani films so far, the performance of the SBFC has been highly praised by Nadeem Mandviwalla of the Atrium cinema saying that everybody in the current board has been very effective and they have helped them as much as possible.

But this smooth sailing may not continue for long as the board is going to be reconstituted according to news reports saying that the Sindh chief minister has directed the culture secretary to prepare for the SBFC reconstitution. SBFC secretary Syed Amjad Ali Shah Masoomi confirmed the news to Dawn and said that this reconstitution would happen after the Eid.

“Whoever the government brings, they should be those people who are knowledgeable about films and the growth of cinema. They should realise that all of us are stakeholders who need to work for the betterment of the industry. The past eight years have been phenomenal for the development and growth of the cinema business. We are releasing English films just one week after the films are released in the United States and sometimes we even release films before they are released in the US. This is a humungous achievement for us despite the fact that there are piracy issues. Sometimes the film arrives just two to three days before its exhibition and in that short period of time it has to get clearance from the customs; it has to be passed by the censors and for all this facilitation is required. Hurdles should not be created unnecessarily. Any bureaucrat who comes to head the SBFC needs to know and understand the dynamics of the business because it is not just about censoring of films,” says Mr Mandviwalla.