Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 22, 2017)

IFFI’s controversy-riddled Indian Panorama section opened on Tuesday with a fumble as the name of Sujoy Ghosh, the chairperson of the feature film jury who has since stepped down from the panel, was announced and an IFFI staff member came forward with his certificate and trophy at the felicitation ceremony. This was followed by Apurva Asrani’s name being announced, not once but twice, after which the host said, “guess he is missing in action,” after four members from the team ran into the venue waving their hands in a big “No”. Asrani has also resigned from the jury. While the name of the third jury member who has resigned, Gyan Correa, was omitted, that of Satarupa Sanyal, who was not present, was announced too till festival director Sunit Tandon asked the host to move on with the list.

Many other jury members, including Gopi Desai, Nikkhil Advani and Nishikant Kamat were present on the occasion. “We are here to support Pihu, the incredibly beautiful opening film. As an industry, we stand by each other and if anyone has any problem, they are free to express it as we live in a democracy,” asserted Sudhir Mishra, chairperson of the jury of the nonfeature section, adding that they were all there to celebrate cinema. “IFFI is the platform where I started my journey as a filmmaker. I was born as a filmmaker here and it is a kind of a pilgrimage for me. And I will come here no matter what the problems.”

Sridevi, who inaugurated the segment, kept her speech short and snappy, “I’m happy to be here. I declare the Panorama section now open.”