Shyam Benegal reacts to Sujoy Ghosh's exit as jury chief after 'Sexy Durga', 'Nude' dropped from IFFI
By ANI | Published: 14th November 2017 08:57 PM |
Last Updated: 14th November 2017 08:57 PM | A+A A- |
A still from Sanal Kumar Sasidharan's 'Sexy Durga'.
MUMBAI: Filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh resigned as head of the jury of the Indian Panorama of the 48th International Film Festival of India (IIFI) after the final selection saw the exclusion of two films, ‘Sexy Durga’ and ‘Nude'.
Reacting to the decision taken by the Government of India to ban those movies, veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal backed Ghosh and said that the government should not support those people, who do not want the film to be shown. Instead, they should support those who want to show the film.
Benegal told ANI, “The government should not support those people who do not want the film to be shown. Instead, support those who want to show the film. Govt. decided that a couple of films chosen by jury shouldn't be there. If they override what jury does, their position becomes untenable.”
Adding, “So jury or its chairman will have to resign. If a jury has been constituted and you disagree with their choice, then what is that jury supposed to be doing. What Sujoy Ghosh did is a correct thing.”
Reacting on the same, Veteran actor Raza Murad noted that the government does not generally tell the jury to not screen any movie.
“The jury is an independent body in itself. They know which film is to be shown and which is to be not. If the government has told them to not show some movies, this does not happen quite frequently. But why did this happen? The reason is only known to the government or the almighty,” noted Murad.
Meanwhile, Gajendra Chauhan congratulated the Government and the I&B ministry for the decision and shared that no wrong movie should go to the mass
Chauhan said, “It is on Ghosh if he wants to continue on the post or not. But I want to congratulate the Government of India, the Ministry of I&B for taking such a step. Their view is very clear that no wrong film, no film that is objectionable to the ministry, should go to the festival and the mass.”
These responses come after the 13-member jury, led by Ghosh, had reportedly included both the movies ‘Sexy Durga’ and ‘Nude’ in their recommended list, but they did not find their way in the list passed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
‘Sexy Durga’, which will release in theatres as ‘S Durga’, is a Malayalam film by Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, while ‘Nude’ is a Marathi movie by National Award winning director Ravi Jadhav.
