IFFI row: I&B ministry’s decision a ‘crude censorship’, says Manish Tewari

Team Udayavani, Nov 14, 2017, 4:38 PM IST

New Delhi: Congress leader Manish Tewari today termed as “preposterous” the dropping of two films from the International Film Festival by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and asked the creative community to revolt against what he described as “crude censorship”. Tewari said the interference with the jury decisions by the Ministry is “a new low”.

“PREPOSTEROUS – that I&B Ministry got two Films dropped from IFFI2017. Interference with Jury decisions a new LOW. When Ministry tasked with defending freedom of speech and expression becomes it’s SLAYER it is time for the creative community to revolt against this CRUDE censorship,” he said on Twitter.

The directors of Malayalam movie ‘S Durga’ and Marathi film ‘Nude’ alleged that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has overruled the decision of the IFFI jury and pulled out their movies from the 48th edition of the film festival to be held in Goa later this month. ‘S Durga’ director Sanal Kumar Sasidharan and ‘Nude’ director Ravi Jadhav said they were shocked and disappointed by the decision to drop the films from the Panorama section.

A jury member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, termed the ministry’s decision as “unprecedented”. The ministry did not respond to the reports. “The jury’s recommendations are final and cannot be changed without consulting them. But the ministry has gone ahead and dropped the two films on its own,” he said.

‘Nude’, he added, is so good that the 13-member Panorama jury, headed by Sujoy Ghosh, recommended it as the opening film for 48th International Film Festival of India in Goa from November 20-28. Ghosh has resigned as head of the jury of IFFI’s Indian Panorama section following the controversy over the removal of the two films from the final selection.

‘S Durga’, which was earlier titled “Sexy Durga”, is a road movie that follows the horrifying experience of two hitchhikers, a man and a woman, at the hands of two men. It won the Hivos Tiger Award in the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2017. ‘Nude’ depicts the struggle of a woman secretly working as a nude model in Mumbai. PTI SKC RCJ