Committees

S K Patil Committee – Film Enquiry Committee

India’s newly independent Central Government appointed a new Film Enquiry
Committee on 29 August 1949. S.K. Patil chaired this committee and its members
included two important film industry figures, B.N. Sircar and V. Shantaram, the
founders of New Theatres Ltd. and Prabhat Film Company respectively. Rather
than being focused on censorship or classification exclusively, the Film Enquiry
Committee sought to investigate the industry broadly, including regarding
matters of legitimate financing, taxation, and the state’s role in film production.

The committee’s aims were as follows:

1. To enquire into the growth and the organization of the film industry in
India and to indicate the lines on which further development should be
directed.
2. To examine what measures should be adopted to enable films in India to
develop into an effective instrument for the promotion, of national culture,
education and healthy entertainment.
3. To enquire into the possibility of manufacture of raw film and
cinematograph equipment in India and to indicate what standards and
principles should be adopted for the import of raw film and equipment and
for floatation of new Companies.

The Report of the Film Enquiry Committee was published in 1951. Most accounts
describe that the report’s recommendations were not implemented by
governments, including the suggestion for new institutions to guide producers in
relation to the censorship process (Mehta 2011). Notably, the report highlighted
an absence of films made with a child audience specifically in mind; subsequently,
the state-funded Children’s Film Society was established in 1955. In the two
years since the Cinematograph Amendment Act 1949 had established the dual-
category certificate system (including the “U” and “A” categories), the report
noted that some producers and exhibitors had exploited the A certificate in
promotional material, implying that it contained “salacious” content (GoI 1951,
22). This echoed historical concerns in India about film posters deemed to titillate
potential filmgoers, even where the sexual content being advertised had been
removed from films under the authority of the Cinematograph Act 1918.

The report was critical of the absence of guidelines provided to distinguish

between the A and U categories, acknowledging the subjective nature of
censorship as practice: “62. Human factor in censorship: Even though principles
and rules might be standardised, judgement is bound to vary with individuals”
(GoI 1951, 19). It specified that under the UK system at the time, “young persons
below 18 are permitted to see films which have received only an ‘Adult’ or ‘A’
certificate, when they are accompanied by one or their parents or guardians”,
with such adults presumed to “correct any wrong impression” provided by films
“likely to give a distorted view of life to young persons without sufficient worldly
experience” (GoI 1951, 22). This is an early reference to the concept of parental
guidance that is formalized in the 1983 amendments to the Cinematograph Act
1952.

Ashok Chanda Committee

Under Indira Gandhi’s direction as Minister in 1964, the Ministry of Information
and Broadcasting established a committee led by former Auditor-General of India
Ashok.Chanda to investigate Indian broadcasting. It presented a report on radio
and television in 1966 that was critical of the state’s financial and administrative
restrictions on these media.

Recommendations

The report noted that the independence of All India Radio (or “Ākāshvānī” since
1956) was systematically undermined by ministerial interventions in
programming and through political appointments of staff: “successive Ministers
usurped the policy-making functions of the directorate-general and started
interfering even in matters of programme planning and presentation”. The
Chanda committee also noted that radio and television were significantly
underfunded, as compared with comparative countries. Under the former
Ministers of Information and Broadcasting since Indian independence –
Vallabhbhai Patel (1947-1950), R.R. Diwaker (1950-1952), and B.V. Keskar (1952-
1962) – the Chanda committee suggested that television was understood as “an
expensive luxury intended for the entertainment of the affluent society and . . .
should be left alone until our plans of economic development have been
completed” (1966, 199). The Chanda report instead concluded that “A
psychological transformation is necessary” (1966, 231) with regard to state
approaches to Indian broadcasting, providing 219 recommendations. Unlike the
majority of the film industry, the report recommended that radio and television
should remain publicly controlled, while requiring greater funding, including
through advertising revenue. Hence the committee recommended the
establishment of two autonomous corporations separately for radio and
television. This was unacceptable but setting up of Commercial Broadcasting was
accepted. It took another six years to separate 'Doordarshan' from 'Akashwani' to
create Akashwani and Doordarshan in 1976. Though both function under the
same administrative and financial procedures with common engineering and
programme staff cadres.

As a result commercial advertising was introduced in the Bombay-Pune-Nagpur

chain of Vividh Bharati stations. Also Family Planning Broadcasts was intensified in
22 stations and it was to be funded by the ministry of Health & Family Planning.

Robin Jeffrey (2006, 216) effectively sums up the political-historical context that
circumscribed the influence of the report:

“The timing of the report – April 1966 – was inopportune. The Prime Minister,
Lal Bahadur Shastri, had died in January, Mrs. Gandhi was an unsteady
replacement, the country had just fought its second war in three years and the
two-year ‘Bihar famine’ was beginning.”

Varghese Committee
The Janta Government had appointed a Working Group on the autonomy of the
Akashwani and Doordarshan in August 1977. The chairman of this committee
was B.G. Varghese. The committee submitted its report on February 24, 1978.
This committee’s main recommendation was “formation of Akash Bharti or the
“National Broadcasting Trust“, both for the AIR and Doordarshan. The committee
noted that the people want an independent corporation because, the executive,
abetted by a captive parliament, shamelessly misused the Broadcasting during
emergency and this must be prevented for all times. Such was the bold
recommendation of this committee, which wanted substantial “Constitutional
Safeguards” for the recommended body. But these recommendations could not
find favors of even Janta rulers.
This followed a bill in May 1979 introduced by LK Advani, who was information
and Broadcasting minister in the Government. The bill proposed the
“Autonomous Corporation” known as Prasar Bharti for both AIR and
Doordarshan. But the bill was introduced in the compromised state, rejecting the
provisions of the constitutional safeguards. Meanwhile the Lok Sabha dissolved
guaranteeing the death of this bill.

Khosla Committee – Enquiry Committee on Film Censorship

The Enquiry Committee on Film Censorship, popularly known as the Khosla
Committee, published its report on 26 July 1969. This committee was appointed
on 28 March 1968, following public concern over increasing sex and violence in
cinema (Mehta 2011), and was chaired by a former Chief Justice of the Punjab
High Court, Justice G.D. Khosla. The focus of the fifteen-member committee was
wide-ranging, with implications for the history of Indian film classification.
Its mandate included:
 Investigating the effects of public exhibition of films;
 The artistic content and mass appeal of contemporary Indian films;
 The certification regime for films in India;
 Providing recommendations for improving this regime on behalf of
cinema’s creative development, relations between regulators and the film
industry, and the protection of public taste.
The Khosla Report is generally understood to have provided a critical take on
Indian film regulation and a progressive take on film content for its time.
William Mazzarella (2013, 61) calls it “the canonical text of Indian-liberal-
reformist censorship discourse.” In particular, the Report recommends the
establishment of a censor board that is independent of government, which
would establish its own censor code:
“Censorship should be exercised not by a department of the state whose
decisions are subject to revision, appeal or interference by the government,
but by an independent body which has been given sufficient authority and a
sufficient sense of responsibility to deal with the matter finally and
irrevocably.”

Along with the typical interest in the simultaneous educative and dangerous
potentials of film with regard to the experience of its consumption, the Report
was also concerned with the audiences that censors sought to protect.

The Committee took a liberal approach to cinematic representations of

sexuality, dependent on their semantic context, advising censors that “in
telling the story it is logical, relevant or necessary to depict a passionate kiss or
a nude human figure, there should be no question of excluding the shot,
provided the theme is handled with delicacy and feeling, aiming at aesthetic
expression and avoiding all suggestion of prurience or lasciviousness” (Khosla
et al. 1969, 122). There was no question about whether such content would be
available to children. Instead, the Report recommended adding to the two
category classification system (“U” and “A”) a third category, “G”, for films fit
for universal exhibition but requiring adults to accompany minors (Bose 2013).
This third category was finally implemented as “UA” in 1983. 

Joshi Committee – Working group on software for doordarshan

As soon as Congress party came to power, it appointed PC Joshi Committee in

1982, whose main term of reference was to prepare a software plan for
Doordarshan.

The terms of reference of the Working Group included the following:

1. To prepare a software plan taking into consideration the main objectives of

TV.
2. To examine the need for starting a multi-channel service, consider the
composition of urban and rural viewers and recommended a programme
pattern taking into account programme production facilities both existing
as well as planned.
3. To assess manpower requirements and suggest improvements; and
4. To evolve a system of evaluating the programs and artists' performance, as
also a system of monitoring programs.
But this group also emphasized on the absence of “Functional Freedom” in Prasar
Bharti. This committee said that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
should be reorganized and a separate board on the lines of Railway Board should
be created, in which only people with professional experience should get entry. 

Second Press Commission

The Government of India appointed Second Press commission on 18th may 1978
for a comprehensive and in depth examination of the state of Indian press & the
steps that needs to be taken for its development on sound lines. Its chairman was
Justice P.K. Goswami. The commission enquired and suggested how best the
press should develop in full rigor and strength in the future.

The appointment of second press commission became necessary since the Indian
press had undergone several changes and acquired an added significance with the
continuously expanding readership.

Prasara Bharati Act - 1990

The Prasar Bharati Act (1990) was formed by the government as a result of
Chanda committee report in 1966,   the Varghese Committee report in 1978 and
the Joshi Committee in 1985- set up by the government made a case for
organizational restructuring of broadcasting. 
Prasar Bharati is India’s largest public broadcaster. It comprises Doordarshan
television Network and All India Radio. Earlier it was the media units of the
Ministry Of Information and Broadcasting, now it is an autonomous body set up
by an Act of Parliament. The Parliament of India passed an Act to grant this
autonomy in 1990, but it was enacted September 15, 1997. The Prasar Bharati
(Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990,   extends to the whole of India.
Mrinal Pandey was the first chairperson of Prasar Bharati and Jawhar Sircar was
the first CEO. Presently A. Surya Prakash is the chairman & Shashi Shekar
 Vempati is the CEO of Prasar Bharati. The Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting
Corporation of India) Act, 1990

The objectives of the Prasar Bharati Bill are:

1. To confer autonomy on Akashvani and Doordarshan, thereby ensuring that
they function in a fair, objective and creative manner.
2. Upholding of both unity and integrity of the country.
3. Upholding of the democratic and social values enshrined in the constitution.
4. To look after the safeguarding of the citizen's right to be informed freely,
truthfully and objectively.

Establishment and composition of Corporation.

(1) There shall be established for the purposes of this Act a Corporation, to be known
as the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India).
(2)   The Corporation shall be a body corporate by the name aforesaid,
(3)   The headquarters of the Corporation shall be at New Delhi and the Corporation
may establish offices, Kendra or stations at other places in India and, with the
previous approval of the Central Government, outside India.
(4)  The Board shall consist of:-

a) A Chairman;
b) One Executive Member;
c) One Member (Finance);
d) One Member (Personnel);
e) Six Part-time Members;
f) Director-General (Akashvani), ex-officio;
g) Director-General (Doordarshan), ex-officio;
h) One representative of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, to
be nominated by that Ministry; and
i) Two representatives of the employees of the Corporation, of whom one shall
be elected by the engineering staff from amongst themselves and one, shall be
elected by the other employee from amongst themselves.

In the year 1998, a new ordinance was brought to revive the original Prasar
Bharati Act of 1990. As in the original act, the ordinance provides for the
establishment of a parliamentary committee to oversee the functioning of the
Corporation. Appointment of 2 members for finance and personnel.
Establishment of a broadcasting council and retirement of 1/3 of members by
rotation was also granted. The upper limit of the chairmen is 70 years & the
tenure has been cut short from 5 years to 3 years. Age limit of all the other
members including the CEO is 65 years.

The need to protect the autonomous identity of Prasar Bharati Corporation was
highlighted by its chairman, A. Surya Prakash, in a recent interview with The
Hindu. Mr. Prakash alleged that the 1990 Act was being treated with “utter
contempt.” For example, he referred to a Ministry directive that the Secretary,
I&B, would appraise the Prasar Bharati CEO. Another directive wants the Prasar
Bharati to get rid of contractual employees. That Prasar Bharati is an autonomous
corporation is evident in Section 4. The Chairman and the other Members —
except the ex-officio members, the nominated member and the elected members
— shall be appointed by the President on the recommendation of a committee.
The government has no part in the appointment. The Act points out that the CEO
would be under the “control and supervision” of the Board and not the Central
government.

On 22 January 2019 a digital news platform by name ‘The Print’, published an

article which stated the plans of Modi’s government planning to disband Prasar
Bharati and turn Akashvani and Doordarshan into public sector broadcasting
firms. The reason behind this is that Prasar Bharati.

https://wecommunication.blogspot.com/2014/08/prasar-bharati-act-
1990.html

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/what-is-the-prasar-
bharati-act-all-about/article23034668.ece

https://www.gktoday.in/gk/b-g-verghese-committee/