Protest planned against Kerala censor board official

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - Officials of the Kerala Film Chamber of Commerce have announced that they would stage a sit-in outside the regional censor board office here Thursday to protest against the high handedness of an officer.

Film stars, producers, distributors, directors and exhibitors are likely to take part in the protest, they said.

Addressing reporters here Wednesday, convenor of the chamber G. Suresh Kumar said regional censor officer Madhu Kumar was behaving in an irresponsible manner.

“He is coming out with rules which no producer in the past had to face and, as a result, lot of inconvenience is being caused,” he said.

“We want him to be shifted and save the industry here from more problems,” said Suresh Kumar.

Citing an example, the chamber official said “Vande Matheram” — a film starring Mammootty — ran into trouble with the official asking the producer of the film to delete two songs.

“Later, the songs were included after the producer of the film went in for appeal. To protest this, tomorrow (Thursday) we are staging a sit-in in front of his office,” he said.

Speaking to IANS, Madhu Kumar dismissed the allegations levelled against him.

“I go by the rule book only. The rules are quite clear and I can’t deviate from that. I have done no wrong and the producers are well within their right to go in for an appeal if they have problems. The rules are clear that they can approach the appellate authority for an appeal,” said Madhu Kumar.