new delhi the censor board came under fire by the film fraternity on friday for its decision to refuse certification to the awardwinning film lipstick under my burkha the board had objected to alleged audio pornography sexual scenes and abusive words in the filmthe decision was sharply criticised by prominent filmmakers and actors who described it as censor board chief pahlaj nihalanis arrogance nihalani however defended his decision saying the film had very long explicit scenes and portrays phone sexwhile refusing to certify the film a communication by the central board of film certification cbfc to producer prakash jha said the story is lady oriented their fantasy above life sic there are contaniuous sic sexual scenes abusive words audio pornography and a bit sensitive touch about one particular section of society hence film refused sicfilm director alankrita shrivastava condemned the ban and lashed out at cbfc saying that the decision was an assault on womens rights and she would do everything to ensure that the audience got to see the film i am not defeated disheartened or disillusioned by the cbfcs refusal to certify lipstick under my burkha i am more determined than ever before to ensure that lipstick under my burkha can be watched by indian audiences she saidthe filmmakers plan to approach the film certification appellate tribunal against the censor boards decisionprotesting against the cbfcs decision jha directed his ire at the idea of censorship rather than nihalani this problem of censorship will persist till the time the power and freedom to censor is given to someone cbfc consists of some members who have their own thinking and they interpret the guidelines according to that the problem stays irrespective of who the cbfc members are its not because of pahlaj nihalani this can be solved only when we get past censoring and talk about certificationlipstick under my burkha which stars konkona sen sharma and ratna pathak shah was first screened at the mami film festival in 2016 and has won the spirit of asia prize and the oxfam award for best film on gender equality oxfam said that the film was picked because it creatively and effectively takes on marital rape religious orthodoxy sexuality of older women and more importantly women taking agency over their bodiesslamming the censor boards decision filmmaker sudhir mishra said can you not depict female desires and what do you mean by audio pornography if you see the objections minutely are they saying that if a woman expresses her desire the cbfc is there to put a curb on that indians can handle stuff and take their own decisions about things the cbfc is only entitled to warn the audience about certain things in a film not stop the audience from seeing it actordirector farhan akhtar added his voice to the protest tweeting below is the reason cbfc listed for denying lipstickundermyburkha a release keep your barf bag readymasaan director neeraj ghaywan tweeted that the film was being mansplained over being lady oriented irony