IFFI Jury Clears ‘S Durga’ But Film May Still Not Be Shown at Fest

Despite the new IFFI jury voting in favour of ‘S Durga’, the film might not be screened at IFFI.

As per the Kerala High Court’s order, a special screening of the censored version of Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s controversial Malayalam film S Durga was held for the jury at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) on Monday evening. Though the jury voted by a majority (7:4) in favour of screening of the Malayalam film, it still remains unclear if Sanal’s film will finally be shown at the Festival. IFFI is scheduled to wrap up today, 28 November.

Speaking to The Quint, Sanal said that he spoke to the newly appointed head of the IFFI jury, Rahul Rawail, who only committed that the jury has seen S Durga and would now pass on its recommendation to the I&B Ministry, which would then take a call about the screening of the film. “They are basically coming up with foolish arguments and excuses not to screen the film,” says Sanal.

When Sanal showed Rawail the Kerala High Court order, which directs that S Durga should be screened in the Indian Panorama at IFFI, Rawail evaded the conversation by stating that “the matter was sub-judice” and that Sanal should bring a new court order.

According to reports, the jury members who voted against the screening of the film at IFFI include the new jury head Rahul Rawail, and the three new members Vivek Agnihotri, Satish Kaushik and Sudhir Chaudhary. The three members were put on the jury after Sujoy Ghosh, Apurva Asrani and Gyan Correa had earlier resigned in protest over the exclusion of films S Durga and Nude from the Festival.

Sanal feels that this blatant disregard for the Kerala HC order is a sign that the government is making mockery of the judiciary and the filmmaker is contemplating on taking legal recourse again for IFFI’s contempt of court. “If the executives are not obeying judiciary, then it is a constitutional issue, no?” asks the filmmaker.

As of now efforts are on way by Sanal to have a parallel screening of S Durga near the IFFI venue, for which filmmaker Anand Gandhi has offered support.

“The film not getting screened despite a court order is terrifying. What is worrying me is the silence of the general public. This is just a hint of what is next,” ends Sanal.