Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s Malayalam movie S Durga and Ravi Jadhav’s Marathi film Nude have been pulled out from the 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), in Goa, later this month.
Nude and S Durga were chosen by a 13-member jury for IFFI's Indian Panorama section. But surprisingly, the two films didn’t make it to the final list released by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry on Friday.
While, Ravi’s directorial deals with the struggle of a woman as she survives in a city like Mumbai as a nude model, Sasidharan’s film depicts the intimidating environment a woman has to traverse when she steps out of her comfort zone.
Shocked by the decision, Ravi told News18.com, “I thought it was selected. But then when I read the newspaper in the morning I was very disappointed. Because I personally feel that once the jury decides something that’s their ultimate decision. After that if the ministry revisits it that’s fine but it has to at least inform the jury.”
Ravi said, more than for his film, he is disappointed because none of the jury members were informed about the changes. “All the jury members are very big guys, they actually invest a lot of their time in watching our films. And after doing all this, the ministry is not even informing them, it’s quite sad.”
He further said the ministry decided to omit the film from the list as “it must have gone by the film’s name or synopsis. My film is more for educational purposes. To learn about anatomy. In fact, I have shot the film in such a way that there’s not much nudity in the film. I’m also an art school student so I understand my responsibility of what to show and how to show.”
However, Ravi clarified that he has no complaints with the jury.
“There is Prasoon Joshi and Piyush Pandey on the panel. They are the most talented and creative people we have in India right now and I’m definitely sure that once they watch the film and understand it, they’ll definitely support it. I’m very optimistic about it.”
Sasidharan, on the other hand, said that he clearly anticipated this was going to happen.
“They had a problem with my film’s title so I changed it to S Durga. The controversy should have ended there. Why are they dragging it now? Basically, they have a problem with my film’s content,” he told News18.com.
Sasidharan, whose film was mired in controversy over its original title Sexy Durga, said it’s extremely sad how those in positions of power are controlling everything.
“Whoever is critcising these authorities, they are suffering like us. But people who are impartial are coming to support me and I think that's enough. It’s sad that our country is no more a democratic country. If those in power are doing everything, then why have they allocated a jury? It’s a very pathetic situation. I think people will soon realise the difference between right and wrong.”
The final list of 26 films includes — Jolly LLB 2, Baahubali 2: The Conclusion and Ventilator.
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