Thiruvananthapuram: Veteran filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan has criticised censorship in cinema, saying it is "totally unwanted" and feels television programmes are the ones which should be censored.
Many television programmes, especially soap operas, are even showcasing crime on prime time after giving prior announcement, the 75-year-old Dadasaheb Phalke awardee said.
He also questioned the display of anti-smoking and liquor messages on the movie screen and said if smoking and drinking were injurious to health, it should be banned. "There is no need for cinema to bear its burden," he said.
"I personally feel that there is no need for censorship. It is totally unwanted. I do not think vulgarity galore in films, if there is no censorship," the "Vidheyan" director said.
Pointing out the need of imposing censorship for TV programmes, the director said many channels are crossing their limits to get maximum viewership and rating.
"Television is more influential than cinema now-a-days. But, the present situation is that anything can be shown on TV and there is no censorship," he said adding such programmes were giving a wrong lesson to viewers.
However, he said censorship had never posed any problem to him in any of his 12 films so far.
Adoor wanted the state government to implement the recommendations submitted to it by the panel, headed by himself, two years ago to revamp Malayalam cinema.
The subsidy, given to filmmakers, should be enhanced according to the requirements and cost of the present day industry, he said.
"Maharashtra government is giving a lot of encouragement to promote cinema. It has helped for the release of a handful of good Marathi cinema in the last 10 years," he said adding Kerala government should learn lessons from it and give more support to Malayalam films.
A grading system should be implemented for state theatres and e-ticketing system should be launched there, he said.
He suggesting setting up a a Kerala State Film Authority, comprising representatives of state government and cinema to deal with issues related to the industry.
The multiple National and state award winner also said digital technology had not cut down the production cost of films but helped to avoid complexities in its making.