New Delhi: The President of India on Thursday broke away from a tradition of 65 years and presented the National Film Awards to a select group of 11 out of 131 awardees, on the plea that he would attend the event only for an hour.
The rebuff caused much heartburn among the remaining award winners who too were invited to the event but instead honoured by Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani. These artists were livid that they were informed that the President will be presenting awards to an exclusive group only on Wednesday evening. Result: Over 50 awardees reportedly boycott the awards while over 60 awardees have written a letter in protest.
“It feels like a breach of trust when an institution that abides by extreme protocol fails to inform us of such a vital aspect of the ceremony without prior notice. It seems unfortunate that 65 years of tradition are being overturned in a jiffy,” the letter read. The award winners also said that they felt “dejected rather than honoured for our work”.
The response from the President’s office was tepid: It expressed surprise at the “11th hour protest”, saying it was known that Kovind attends all award functions for a maximum of one hour, no matter what their nature. “This has been the protocol since he assumed office. It was conveyed to Information and Broadcasting Ministry several weeks ago and the ministry knew this all along,” said Ashok Malik, press secretary to the president.
The 11 chosen for the President’s excusive segment included Vinod Khanna and Sridevi, who have been honoured posthumously. The National Award winners had travelled from across the country to receive the honour. The artists also said that they had discussed the matter with the Smriti Irani on Wednesday evening and were promised a reply but they had not heard from anybody.
‘‘In the circumstance of not receiving a response for our grievance we are left with no option but to be absent for the ceremony. We do not intend to boycott the award but are not attending the ceremony to convey our discontent and are awaiting a more just solution,” the protest letter said.
Newton producer Manish Mundra, whose film has won the National Award for best Hindi film, tweeted: “The whole inherent and intrinsic value of National Film Awards is due to the fact that it is being given away by (the President). Otherwise it is just one amongst the other many film awards mushrooming across the country,” he tweeted.Prasad Devineni, the producer of Baahubali, remarked: “If an award is an award, you can send it by post.”
The President’s remark at the awards ceremony was quite cryptic. “Picture abhi baaki hai” – the best is ahead of us,” he said while addressing the gathering as he talked about Indian cinema.
New Delhi: RC Suresh (R), winner for Best Documentary, Best Director, Best Music Director along with other awardees after deciding to skip the 65th National Film Awards ceremony in New Delhi on Thursday. More than 60 winners of the National Film Awards decided to skip the function in protest agains a last minute announcement that President Ram Nath Kovind would be presenting only 11 awards, a departure from tradition. PTI Photo by Vijay Verma (PTI5_3_2018_000122B)