'Vijay Anand kept saying censorship should be free, had to retire out of frustration', says son

Vijay Anand, who would have turned 87 on Friday, was the CBFC chief for sometime, but his son now says he was unhappy with censorship and quit filmmaking due to the frustration.

Veteran filmmaker Vijay Anand gave film buffs gems like Tere Ghar Ke Samne, Guide, Jewel Thief and Johny Mera Naam. Friday marks his 87th birth anniversary. His son Vaibhav Anand has said that the legendary filmmaker did not like censorship, and his frustration forced him to retire from filmmaking. Interestingly, Vijay had served as the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chief for a short term.

Friday marks 87th birth anniversary of Vijay Anand. (Twitter)

The director, who decided to not be a part of his siblings' Dev Anand and Chetan Anand's legacy Navketan, went ahead to make great films like Teesri Manzil.

Citing troubles of the censor board, his son told Indian Express in an interview, "Dad’s battle was always with censorship — from the time of Kala Bazar which ran into censor trouble. The Censor Board said it’s not enough for the black marketer to be reformed. He must be punished. So a new ending was made. When he was part of the Censor Board, the government didn’t want to see ahead of their time. He kept saying censorship should be free. He was unhappy with that, as well as very disgruntled with the mendacity that was seeping in at that time in filmmaking. That phase lasted a long time. He had a zest for life and used to say that I’d rather die making films. Unfortunately, a huge talent like him had to retire out of frustration."

After facing ideological differences with the government over the introduction of ratings for adult movies, Vijay resigned as the CBFC chief in 2002.

Vaibhav further told the daily, "He would have loved the diversity of OTT space. Things have become a little more straightforward today. Everyone’s talking about nepotism, but Navketan gave a break to some of the finest young talents of their time. The brothers always stood for unity. They never discriminated on the basis of religion or caste."

Veteran actor Manoj Kumar also paid his tribute to Vijay Anand and tweeted a picture of the filmmaker with the caption, "Remembering the legendary filmmaker Vijay Anand on his birth anniversary."

Filmmaker Ashoke Pandit also tweeted, "Paying my tributes to Legendary Filmmaker #VijayAnand ji on his Birth anniversary. He influenced a whole generation of filmmakers as a writer-director ahead of his time & is known for his acclaimed films like Guide (1965) , Teesri Manzil (1966) Johnny Mera Naam (1970)."