Filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh resigned as the head of the jury of IFFI's Indian Panorama section over the exclusion of two films from the final selection that has kicked up a storm and which also led one of the filmmakers to move a court on Tuesday, challenging the Centre's decision.
Overruling the recommendation of the 13-member jury, the Information and Broadcasting ministry pulled out Malayalam movie S Durga and Marathi film Nude from the 48th edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) to be held in Goa from 20 November to 28 November.
Ghosh replied in the affirmative when asked if he had resigned as jury head in the wake of the controversy over the two films being excluded in the final selection.
"Yes, but I can't say anything more than that right now," he told PTI.
Several jury members expressed their displeasure over the ministry's move to drop the films from the list they submitted, calling it "disappointing and sad".
The jury submitted its list to the ministry on 20-21 September, but the line-up was made public only recently and without the name of the two films.
According to sources in the know, the ministry objected because the film that was supposed to be screened at IFFI was Sexy Durga and not S Durga, the version cleared by the censor board.
The sources added that Nude could not make the cut as the submission was "technically incomplete".
S Durga director Sanan Kumar Sasidharan filed a writ petition in the Kerala High Court challenging the decision of the ministry.
"I want the ministry to go by the rule and not overlook the jury's decision. They should behave like a democracy, not a dictatorship," Sasidharan told PTI. He said he wanted the ministry to implement the jury's decision and include films in the final list.
Also Read: I&B Ministry Pulls out Nude & S Durga From IFFI; Jury in the Dark
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