Central Board of Film Certification has ignored Monkey Man’s request for a screening in India. Even though the movie was supposed to release in India on April 19, 2024, the chances of it ever happening has dwindled down to near zero. Now it could be one thing that the movie was hurting public sentiments. So the course of action should have been banning its release in India, so why wasn’t it banned? And if it wasn’t banned, why were there no screenings of the Monkey Man?
Let’s make one thing clear: Monkey Man was brutal in its portrayal of India. The movie clings on to the themes of crime, religion, and politics, along with their intersection, to the point that Universal had to make changes to its original product. Multiple scenes were removed that alluded to religion and the in-universe ruling party. However, these edits seems to be inadequate to secure a screening in India, as the CBFC just didn’t schedule any screenings even though requests were made. Let’s say, if it was still offensive to the Indian audience, then there should have been no problem with banning the movie. Thus there must be another factor at play here.
CBFC happens to have enough autonomy when it comes to controlling movies. However, the case of Monkey Man feels elusive. By ignoring Monkey Man like this, CBFC has not only saved itself from the clash with the growing right-wing sentiment of India and, at the same time, halted the growth of this as an international matter. Ideally, it wouldn’t have mattered for the board to reconsider the release of a movie in order to cater either the left or right. Which doesn’t seem to be the case. Now the board seems to have acquired silence over the case and even people at Universal appear to be mute when confronted with questions.
