Ashvin Kumar's film No Fathers In Kashmir finally gets UA certification

Ashvin Kumar. Pic/Ashvin Kumar's Instagram account

Almost over a month ago, director Ashvin Kumar had to screen his film No Fathers In Kashmir for the second time to find justice for his film's certification for FCAT, the APEX body which governs the final matters of certification of films in India. What started as a regular filing for a censor in July 2018 has been an eight months, six screenings and seven hearings long process for the makers and the film's actors to wait for their film to get justice.

The film faced delay upon delay for the certification, which eventually led to a ban on the film. After challenging the CBFC decision to give the film an A certificate, which the makers found unjustified basis the content of their movie, they moved to FCAT first in November with a hearing in December and later in January.

FCAT has now after a month of its second screening given its final order on the film asking for a few changes including some cuts and disclaimers. Most importantly, however, the FCAT has vindicated the filmmakers' stand that this is a U/A film by giving it a U/A certification order.

The film stars Soni Razdan, Anshuman Jha and Kulbushan Kharbanda, and traces the love story of two young 16-year-olds who are in search for their fathers who have gone missing in the valley. The filmmakers are ecstatic, especially director Ashvin Kumar who has previously been an Oscar nominee for his short, Little Terrorist, and has even won two National Awards for his feature films Inshallah Football and Inshallah Kashmir.

Speaking about it, director Ashvin Kumar said, "10 years ago in my film Inshallah Football I had warned that allienating the youth of Kashmir would have catastrophic consequences. Censorship of the truth about Kashmir has caused a crisis of compassion, amplifying misguided fears of ordinary Indians towards ordinary Kashmiris. Keeping the public away from information and truth is such a myopic policy - it only breeds more hostility when the need of the hour is empathy leading to peace. Anyone who genuinely wants peace will understand that we must first stop censoring films that tell the truth about Kashmir."

Also read: Bollywood celebs come forth in support of No Fathers in Kashmir

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