Actor-politcian Ravi Kishan has had a three-decade long film career and as per his admission, he is known as the “national crush” and the “Brad Pitt of Bihar.” Ravi was recently asked about the recent censorship troubles of Diljit Dosanjh-starrer Satluj, which did not get a certificate, and even after its release on an OTT platform, it was pulled down just two days later. Ravi, who described himself as an “encyclopedia on cinema”, was also asked about the certification body and how he would feel if one of his projects were heavily censored by the CBFC.When asked about the recent censorship troubles encountered by Satluj, Ravi said that there must have been a “sensitivity” issue. He distanced himself from the subject and said, “I have zero knowledge about it. I just know that the film came and was removed. To be honest, I don’t know the details.”He then added that artistes must be responsible while making films and said that in an attempt to make an entertaining film, they “must not hurt any community or misrepresent any historical event.” Ravi then gave examples of Dhurandhar, Maa Behen and the Netflix show Maamla Legal Hai and said that these projects were released successfully. Ravi worked as an actor in Maa Behen and Maamla Legal Hai. He said in an interview with Screen, “We must be answerable to society because what we make affects the youth. We must be responsible while writing a script and making a movie.” He added that in the past “books were burnt, people were taught wrong history” and he said that films must be very careful about representing historical events correctly.Ravi was then asked how we would feel if, as an artiste, his work were to be scrutinised by the CBFC, or if one of his films got a long list of cuts by the censor board. To this, Ravi said, “I will ask, ‘Why?’ I will ask, ‘What mistake did I make?’”He then said that censorship troubles have existed in India for a long time and spoke about the Emergency era in the 1970s. “It happened during Sholay too. It has happened with thousands of films. It happened during the Congress regime too. Kishore Kumar was banned on radio. Itihaas mein bahut tandav macha hai (History is full of such examples). But now if anything happens, I will ask, ‘What is the problem?’ I will ask if I am hurting a community, misrepresenting history, telling a false story, and then I will edit it on my own. Because a lot of money is invested in films,” he said. Ravi said that there have been instances where films have received 50-100 cuts as well.Ravi will next be seen in Mirzapur – The Movie. The film, which is based on the Amazon Prime Video web series, has been severely critcised for its use of expletives. The film releases in theatres on September 4.
