Aside from being a movie buff, I'm also an indie filmmaker who has made a lot of short films since 2015. One thing that always fascinated me for some reason was the Censor certificate: one you could see for about 5-10 seconds before the beginning of any Film in Indian cinemas and on some OTT platforms. I don't know why but I always wanted one. And that wasn't happening unless I had movies ready for certification. Even though my short movies weren't going to be released in cinemas or even on television, I found a good excuse to fulfill my wish.
I made my first film Vishwavijay in 2015, for which I got the U (universal) certificate.
Several years later, I made Neeras, which received a U/A (parental guidance) certificate.
That way I managed to achieve all three main content ratings (except the rare S rating which I don't know how to get) and hence completed my set.
Now, while none of these movies made a lot of noise or earn money, keeping them prepared with censor certificates meant I could prove my works have been approved by the government of India and that means there should be no objections on the nature of my films' contents. It also made my films eligible to be screened on television if I ever tried for that. While there are people who thought getting censor certificates was kind of unnecessary in the age of uncensored content running on YouTube and other sites, I felt it was a good thing instead. The first certification took time, a lot of it, because I was unfamiliar with the process. I got two certificates: one for the movie and the second for the trailer. Both carried the U rating.
Now, except the trailer, every other certificate I received was either V/U, V/UA or V/A, with V indicating "video release" which means the certification is for video or digital release; it doesn't cover theatrical one. Only the trailer got clearance for theatrical release, even though it never made it to the theatres, which I'm glad about now since it looks terrible and hasn't aged well at all. You can have a look at it here. I'm already warning you, it looks really bad and has poor quality, though.
But, you do need a lot of money to make it all happen. It also depends on how long the film is. You can view the rate chart here. I also wish to get a feature-length film certified for theatrical release, even if I end up releasing it online. I want THAT cool censor certificate one day!
