IFFI jury members write to Smriti over ‘S Durga’, ‘Nude’ row

Mumbai, November 19

Six members of the 13-member jury of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) have written a letter to I & B Minister Smriti Irani raising concern over the exclusion of two films—“S Durga” and “Nude”—from the Indian Panorama section of the event in Goa.

The IFFI, which opens tomorrow, had last week dropped Malayalam film “S Durga”, directed by Sanal Kumar Sasidharan and Marathi movie “Nude”, helmed by Ravi Jadhav from the segment of the 48th edition of the festival.

Through the letter obtained by PTI, the members expressed their distress over the removal of the two films “without any intimation, discussion or recourse to the jury which has the final say according to the Indian Panorama Regulations”.

It read the move resulted in the resignation of three jury members, including chairman Sujoy Ghosh.

The letter has been signed by six members, namely, Satarupa Sanyal, Sachin Chatte, Suresh Heblikar, Hari Vishwanath, Ruchi Narain and Gopi Desai.

“All our written correspondence to DFF and NDFC in the matter went unheeded and there was no response or acknowledgment of the same,” it said.

The members asserted that finding a solution to the issue at hand was necessary as the debate has more “far-reaching implications for the sanctity of the system put into place after years of work by the ministry”.

Defending the two films, the letter read the movies in question are relevant in terms of a larger conversation on gender and women empowerment.

It also read film festivals such as the IFFI provided a platform to artistes “to showcase their work and for new important cinematic voices to be found and heard”.

“The jury followed a method laid out by the Indian Panorama Regulations, and only wants the same to be applied when dismissing a unanimous decision that was arrived at with much deliberation,” it added.

The jury member requested Irani to start a conversation so that the films which continue to be a part of the Panorama are not forgotten amid the controversy, along with “S Durga” and “Nude” be given a “fair chance to be viewed in the light that jury has wished them to be”.

Last week, the ministry overruled the recommendation of the IFFI jury and pulled out the two films.

According to sources, 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 said that “Nude” could not make the cut as the submission was “technically incomplete”.

Sasidharan has filed a writ petition in the Kerala High Court challenging the decision of the ministry.

“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