'Negative police portrayal': Censor Board stalls release of acclaimed movie 'Santosh'

New Delhi: The Central Board of Film Certification stopped the release of British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri’s film ‘Santosh’ in India over ‘negative portrayal of police’.

The movie, which was the United Kingdom’s international feature film submission to the Oscars, was initially slated to release in India on January 10 this year, The Wire reported.

Set in rural north India, the movie starring Shahana Goswami portrays a woman police officer, a widow who lands in her late husband’s constable job after he died in harness, investigating the rape and murder of a Dalit girl.

British newspaper The Guardian reported that the censor board asked Sandhya Suri to make what she said ‘wide-ranging’ cuts.

Suri reportedly said the board asked for ‘a list radical cuts so lengthy and wide-ranging that they would be impossible to implement.’

Despite trying to make the directions work, Suri found it far too difficult to implement ‘those cuts’ and ‘have a film that still made sense, let alone stayed true to its vision’.

The film received ‘rave reviews’ at the 77th Cannes Film Festival last year alongside being nominated for a BAFTA Award in the category Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer.

Terming the censor board’s decision ‘disappointing and heartbreaking’, Suri said that there was nothing sensational in her film.

‘I don’t feel my film glorifies violence in a way that many other films focusing on the police have done,’ she was quoted as saying.