In April, I wrote this Medium post on why I would not be watching Lipstick Under My Burkha — essentially, the reason was that they accepted several cuts from the FCAT to get a theatrical release, in spite of fighting censorship in the first place. Now, while the film is still out in theaters, the movie has come out uncensored on Prime Video. I’m glad to have gotten to do this story, and hope that Amazon continues to avoid censoring Indian films.
Amazon Prime Video has released Lipstick Under My Burkha fully uncensored in India, incorporating over two minutes of the film which were cut in the theatrical release.
The film had been initially rejected by the Censor Board for being too ‘lady-oriented’, so the producers successfully obtained a certificate for theatrical release by going to the FCAT, an appeals body for the Censor Board. The FCAT ruling only came after the film consented to cuts above and beyond what the producers had already volunteered to remove from the film: the theatrical version had over 2 minutes of footage cut, and some swear words were muted. [read the FCAT ruling (pdf)]
This is a significant step away from its usual censorship for Amazon, and the second baby step it has taken towards reducing censorship of its content in India: before this, they released an “International” version of the TV series American Gods, discoverable only in search results.
Read the full post on MediaNama
Also read: Streaming services censor themselves in India, even though they don’t need to