Unrated.....

A few weeks back, I went to watch the movie 'Drive'. It had an R rating to it. “So what” I said to myself, “I've watched many R rated movies in theaters in india”. But what I hadn't realized was that R rated movies here actually showed nudity in Theaters. I was a bit surprised. I was under the impression that only personal copies of R rated movies contained nudity. Any public viewing of R rated movies in india are always the censored versions. The language doesn't matter nearly as much. The reason behind this being is the middle class families in india
are the biggest consumers of the movie industry. They also happen to generally be very cultural! And to be able to generate a profit, the industry needs to make movies that do not push these cultural limits. But like seen in Hollywood, every limit is pushed until it is the norm and this can be seen with the recent Bollywood releases. A few years back in Bollywood the max a couple would bond in a movie was limited to hugs, whereas hollywood went all the way(If you know what I mean!). Even nowadays, lip lock scenes or swimwear scenes are not received well by the general audience and are not considered Family movies! But they are getting increasingly popular in movies as the next consumers are the youth who are not too cultural. Due to my upbringing I had been exposed to many cultures, their norms, beliefs etc which help me set the bar at what I agree or disagree when it comes to movies. One thing I didn't mention before was, in India film ratings is a concept unheard of, or every one just ignores them. Most movies from Bollywood never have ratings, they are made to be viewed by everyone. And when Hollywood movies started rolling in, no one cared about ratings. As a kid I was allowed to watch any movie I could buy. My parents just had a no nudity policy. It wasn't until I went to boarding school that I had to follow the rating policy-which wasn't too bad...