Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; November 15, 2017)

While it’s not clear whether this was on expected lines or not, filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh has stepped down as the head of the jury for the International Film Festival of India’s upcoming edition. He was spearheading a team of 13 jurors for the Indian Panorama section. His resignation comes amidst reports that two movies selected by the jury for the said section were removed from the final list by the I&B Ministry without their information.

On November 9, when the ministry unveiled its final list of feature and non-feature films, Sanal Sasidharan’s Malayalam film S Durga and Ravi Jadhav’s Marathi film Nude were missing. Since then, the ministry has not responded to the allegations. Both, S Durga and Nude, continue to make rounds of international film festivals, while Pihu, directed by Vinod Kapri has replaced the latter as the opening film for the festival.

Apart from Sujoy, the jury comprised writer-editor Apurva Asrani, director Rahul Rawail, actor-director Gopi Desai, filmmaker Nishikant Kamat, directorwriter Nikkhil Advani and director-writer Ruchi Narain. Despite attempts, Sujoy didn’t respond to us. However, Ruchi reacted, saying, “Action speaks louder than words. Sujoy’s resignation is an action. Even if he doesn’t explain it, his act says it all.” Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, who headlines the Preview Committee for the festival, says, “How can I comment on a personal choice made by someone?”

Filmmaker Ravi Jadhav, who helmed Nude, says, “I had no idea that my film had originally been selected to open the festival. I thought they’ll show it at some point. I got a jolt when I saw the final list and my film had been struck off. I always thought that the jury’s selection is the final one. Now, this makes me wonder who would select the films for the National Awards: the jury or the ministry, like it happened here. After Sujoy’s exit, even Sumitra Bhave is withdrawing her film Kaasav from the festival. These are such important gestures shown by the members of our fraternity. I don’t know how to thank them. To this day, there has been no dialogue with the ministry about what they found objectionable in my film. They haven’t given me a reason for deselecting it. I would have been okay if they told me why the decision was made. My work is not being respected at home while it continues to find its place at festivals abroad. Maybe, like the nude models in my film, I also shouldn’t tell anyone that I made a film called Nude.”
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Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; November 15, 2017)

Two days after Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s S Durga and Ravi Jadhav’s Nude were dropped from the line- up of the 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) by the Information and Broadcasting ministry, Sujoy Ghosh stepped down as the chief of the 13-member jury of the Indian Panorama section at the festival. Though Sasidharan is horrified at the state of events, he is grateful that Ghosh took up for his Malayalam film. “I’m glad Sujoy took a stand for us. This is what we expect from filmmakers. It’s brave of him considering most festival directors shirk away from taking responsibility.”

Reeling under the shock of his film being unceremoniously dropped, the director said, “I’m told it’s a government film festival but I don’t see my movie as anti-government.”

Justifying their move, Vivek Agnihotri, chairman of IFFI preview committee, said, “They wanted a children’s film to be at the centre of the festival. The jury’s job is to select the films, out of which the Ministry chooses 20 of them. From what I checked, one of the films wasn’t complete. The other film was not selected.”

When asked about Ghosh stepping down from his post, Agnihotri added, “That’s his call. But a lot of the jury members are in favour of our decision.”