Panaji: Director Sanal Kumar Sasidharan on Tuesday hailed the Kerala High Court’s order to screen his Malayalam film S Durga at the ongoing IFFI in Goa, days after the Information and Broadcasting Ministry dropped the movie from the festival.
The director had moved court, challenging the ministry’s decision to exclude his film from the Indian Panorama 2017 line-up.
The ministry had overruled the jury’s decision and excluded S Durga and Ravi Jadhav’s Nude from the list, leading to controversy and resignations of jury chairman Sujoy Ghosh and members Apurva Asrani and Gyan Correa.
“I am very happy. It is a victory of cinema and democracy. People stood by us and believed in us and it has paid off. The chairman resigned, other jury members also resigned,” Sanal said in an interview.
“This is a victory of all of us. It is a proof that democracy can’t be killed and law is for the people,” Sanal added.
Asrani said he was looking forward to attend the festival after the court’s decision.
“This is a huge victory for @sanalsasidharan and restores my faith in our democracy. I now look forward to attending the festival to watch the film!” he wrote on Twitter.
Jury member Ruchi Narain also expressed happiness over the outcome. “The judiciary metes out justice. The IFFI festival audience will get to see an amazing set of films,” Narain told PTI.
“This matter is sub judice and until the ministry orders come I can’t say much on this. I have not received any order about the screening from the ministry yet,” he told PTI.
Nishikant Kamat, another jury member of Panorama, said, “We should respect the decision of the judiciary. Obviously, there was a great disappointment when our decision was not considered. It was a well-thought of decision to have the film in the Panorama section.”
Six of the jury members, including Narain, had also written a letter to I&B minister Smriti Irani on Sunday, to express their concern.