The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) this month made a key change to a portal it uses to publish ‘cut lists’ of films, making it harder to routinely review the censorship it imposes on films. The e-Cinepramaan portal, used by studios to submit paperwork for films, and make fee payments for getting their films certified and age-rated, has since 2017 hosted cut lists that the public can review. These cut lists are not searchable on the Censor Board’s main website.
The QR code on CBFC certificates points to the film’s corresponding e-Cinepramaan page, verifying that the certificate is valid, and providing a list of cuts enforced by the censor board. Since the web addresses of these pages ended with an 18-digit number that could be altered slightly to routinely view newer details of certificates in the order they were issued, it has been possible to have near-total visibility into the cuts demanded by the censors.