The head of the Malaysian Censorship Board says had director Bill Condon not mentioned the "gay moment" in his film "Beauty and the Beast", it would not have generated so much curiosity and they would have passed the film with a minor cut.
In an interview with New Straits Times, Datuk Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid says when the homosexuality angle came to the fore, they had to take charge of the situation.
"Maybe if Condon had not mentioned the 'gay element', people wouldn't be so curious and we could let it go with a potentially minor cut. And this whole thing may not have been an issue.
"We at LPF (the censorship board) want to preserve films as much as how they are intended by the director, but the moment the 'gay element' is thrown into the mix, we had to protect ourselves," says Hamid.
Talking about the cut, he adds "so what was initially three seconds, has become over four minutes".
Disney Malaysia has submitted the film for an appeal and they are scheduled to meet the Film Appeals Committee on March 21 to view the movie.
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