The Parliament passed the Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill, 2023 which has provisions for up to three-year jail term and a fine of up to five per cent of the production cost of a film for persons making pirated copies of movies.

Why this new Bill was introduced?

• The Cinematograph Act, 1952 (the Act) was enacted with a view to make provisions for the certification of cinematograph films for exhibition and for regulating exhibitions.

• The medium of cinema, the tools, the technology associated with it and its audience have undergone vital changes over a period of time. The certification process for public exhibition needs to be contemporised in order to make the process in tune with the changed time. 

• The Indian film industry is one of the biggest and most globalised industries in the world producing more than 3,000 films annually in more than 40 languages.

• The film industry has been impacted by the advent of new digital technology, decline in number of the people visiting cinema theatres, increase in piracy of the films through internet or social media, copyright violations and the like which in turn also causes loss to the government exchequer.

• The Bill has been brought to stop the loss of Rs 20,000 crore which occurs due to piracy. The legislation also takes care of the long-standing demand of the film industry.

• The Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill, 2023 aims to comprehensively address the issues relating to film certification. 

The Bill attempts to:

i) Address the issue of unauthorised recording and exhibition of films and curb the menace of film piracy by transmission of unauthorised copies on the internet.

ii) Improve the procedure for certification of films for public exhibition by the

Central Board of Film Certification, as well as to improve the categorisations of the certification of the films.

iii) Harmonise the law with extant executive orders, judicial decisions and other relevant legislations.

Provisions of the new Bill include:

• To introduce three age-based certifications under the ‘UA’ category, namely ‘UA 7+’, ‘UA 13+’ and ‘UA 16+’, and to empower the CBFC to sanction a film with a separate certificate for its exhibition on television or other media.

• To allow for a change of category of a film which has received either ‘A’ or ‘S’ certificate (restricted to specialised audiences such as doctors or scientists) to be converted to ‘UA’ certification after making suitable alterations to allow it to be broadcasted on television.

• To introduce new sections in the Cinematograph Act with provisions to prohibit unauthorised recording of films (section 6AA) and their exhibition (section 6AB).

• The stringent new provision 6AA in the Bill also prohibits recording of a film or any part thereof with the sole purpose of using the recording in the same device.

• Anyone who is involved in film piracy and circulation of such content will be given a maximum jail term of three years and a fine of up to five per cent of the production cost of the film.

• The certificates issued by the Central Board for Film Certification which are now valid for only 10 years will be valid perpetually after the Bill becomes the law.

Manorama Yearbook app is now available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store