On Friday, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) initiated a prompt investigation into the claims made by Tamil actor Vishal. He alleged that he was required to make a payment of Rs 6.5 lakh to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) office in Mumbai for the screening and certification process of the Hindi version of his film "Mark Antony." The actor took to X, formerly known as Twitter, and thanked MIB for taking immediate action.
He wrote, “I sincerely thank @MIB_India for taking immediate steps on this important matter pertaining to corruption issue in #CBFC Mumbai. Thank you very much for the necessary action taken and definitely hoping for this to be an example for every government official who intends to or is part of corruption and to take the honest route to serve the nation and not the steps of corruption. I once again thank my Prime Minister @narendramodi and Maharastra CM @mieknathshinde and everyone involved in bringing out this initiative immediately. It brings a sense of satisfaction to a common man like me and others that justice will be served to people who are victims of corruption, Jai-Hind.”
Vishal made these corruption allegations against the Mumbai office of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) in a post on the microblogging site X on Thursday.
In response, on Friday, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued a statement emphasizing its strong stance against corruption. The ministry expressed its deep concern over the corruption allegations raised by actor Vishal and reiterated its commitment to a zero-tolerance policy regarding corruption. They assured that stringent action would be taken against anyone found to be involved in corrupt practices.
The CBFC issued a statement that read, “It has been noticed that despite the online certification system i.e. E-Cinepramaan in place and regular updates on new system improvements for the film producers/applicants, they still choose to apply through intermediaries or agents. This goes against the objective of eliminating third-party involvement in the certification process. With the implementation of aggressive digitization, complete process automation, and emphasis on minimal human intervention, the interference of intermediaries/agents has come down significantly however, the practice still exists in some regions which is defeating the purpose of transparency and smooth functioning of the certification process.”
“However, we have taken note of the allegations being reported very seriously and CBFC has zero tolerance for corruption. Also, the strictest action will be taken against anyone found involved and we shall get into the root cause. Meanwhile, any attempt to malign the image of CBFC will not be tolerated,” the statement further added.
Vishal's science fiction film "Mark Antony," directed by Adhik Ravichandran, was released in Hindi on Thursday, featuring a cast that includes S J Suryah, Ritu Varma, Sunil, Selvaraghavan, and Abhinaya.
