I&B Ministry Pulls out Nude & S Durga From IFFI; Jury in the Dark

According to the jury, the two films are stunning and would have been loved by the festival audience.

A poster of Nude.

(Photo courtesy: Zee Studios)

The Information & Broadcasting Ministry has ensured that movie buffs do not get to watch Ravi Jadav's Nude and Sanal Kumar Sasidharan's Sexy Durga (retitled as S Durga) at the 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa, later this month. They were among the 26 feature films that were chosen by a 13-member jury for IFFI's Indian Panorama section. But the final list released by the I & B Ministry did not feature the two movies.

What’s more, Nude, the story of a woman's struggle for survival in Mumbai as a nude model, was the jury's unanimous choice as the opening film of the Indian Panorama. Now, a statement issued by the ministry says that Vinod Kapri's Hindi film Pihu would kick off the screenings.

The jury, headed by Kahaani director Sujoy Ghosh, is unhappy about the move, considering they were not even informed of the change. They have mailed to the ministry expressing their displeasure.

A jury member, who did not want to be named, told Mirror:

“My guess is that the people who took this decision did not bother watching either of the two films, because had they done so, they would have realised that <i>Nude </i>has no intention to titillate, while <i>S Durga</i> is a thriller, and there’s nothing sexy about it.”

A jury member

Ruchi Narain, another jury member, said: "The final list that has come out does not match the list we submitted. Personally, I felt Nude and S Durga were stunning quality films which festival audiences would really appreciate."

(Source: Mumbai Mirror)

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