Praveen Morchhale, who boycotted the National Awards ceremony on Thursday despite three wins, opens up about the controversy
Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 5, 2018)

When did you learn that the President, Ram Nath Kovind, wouldn’t be presenting all the awards?
On Wednesday, during the rehearsals. After the introductions Chaitanya Prasad, Additional Director, Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF) informed us that in a departure from earlier years, the ceremony had been divided into two segments and since the first would kick off at 3.30 pm, we were expected to be in our seats at the Vigyan Bhawan the following day by 3.20 pm. He added that after the ceremony, we’d get a photo op with the President in two groups of 45 awardees each. The announcement did not raise any objections till we got our cue sheets detailing the flow of the event and realised that the President would be presenting only 11 awards with Smriti Irani (Union Minister, Information & Broadcasting), Rajyavardhan Rathore (Minister of State, I & B) and Narendra Kumar Sinha (Secretary, I & B) giving away the rest.

This demarcation of awards was unacceptable to many because it was never explained on what basis it was done. The 11 awards were a mix of Swarna Kamal (Gold) and Rajat Kamal (silver), acting and technical honours. One gentleman emotionally stated he’d boycott the ceremony, following which we were asked to voice our grievances to the Minister.

What was Smriti Irani’s reaction?
She was very polite. We artistes talk straight but she remained courteous all through, insisting that it was a matter of protocol over which the ministry had no control. We quizzed her on when the Rashtrapati Bhavan had communicated that the President could spare only an hour for the ceremony, given that the invite received on Wednesday clearly stated that he’d be presenting all the awards from 5.30 pm but there was no answer. We gave her some options to avoid the differentiation and she promised to convey them to the Rashtrapati Bhavan. But since it was past 6 pm, she said she may not get a reply that day.

Did anyone from the Rashtrapati Bhavan or the I & B Ministry touch base with you thereafter?
No, we waited till noon on Thursday when an awardee got a news update on his phone stating that the ceremony would start at 3.30 pm with the President coming in only at 5.30 pm. We realised then that things would go as planned and drafted a letter to Prasad, the President and I & B Ministry, informing that if we didn’t receive a response to our grievances, we’d have no option but to skip the ceremony. This was shared with the media at an impromptu press conference. After that there were no media interactions or demonstrations. Our intention was not to disrespect the President or the award. We skipped the ceremony because we were humiliated and hurt as artistes. It could have been conducted in a more dignified manner.

Over 60 people skipped the ceremony. Where were they when it was happening?
One left for the airport post 3 pm, a few went up to their rooms, most were in the hotel lobby, watching the ceremony on TV. This was a once-in-a-lifetime event for us, I don’t know if I’ll win another award again, and to lose out on hard-won recognition was disappointing.

One awardee argued that five years later no one will remember who presented it, all that will matter is that you won the National Award.
I will remember the segregation all my life. If these things are irrelevant, why do we need to attend a ceremony? We can have them courier the citation and medal to us and get a photograph taken at home.


Morchhale’s Walking With The Wind bagged awards for Best Film (Ladakhi), Sound Design and Re-recording

Has the citation reached you?
No, but the prize money is in my account.

You mentioned certain options were suggested to the minister...
I personally told Smriti ji that I’d be happy if she presented all the awards. Someone suggested that if the President was too busy, the Vice President could do the honours or we could all return at a later date to receive our awards from him. We also suggested that the three-hour ceremony be cut down to an hour-and-a-half, with the speeches and Hindi-English introductions trimmed and winners queuing up beforehand to ensure no one was on stage for more than 30 seconds. We presented these options to the jury chairperson Shekhar Kapur, who along with jury members Rahul Rawail and Rumi Jaffery, met us on Thursday morning. He conveyed them to the organisers and returned to say we’d have to accept things the way they stood and individually decide our course of action. He warned against herd mentality and impressed the need to consider the dignity of the award. We reiterated that we were only trying to maintain our own dignity.

Some recipients like K J Yesudas, Nagraj Manjule and Jayaraj attended the ceremony after signing the petition to absent themselves.
That was their decision and we respect it. Personally, I was hurt by the demarcation so stayed away. It’s like taking your parents to school for an award ceremony and when your time comes, the principal takes off, handing the responsibility to a teacher. It was the same feeling of humiliation.

Who accompanied you to Delhi?
My wife and she supports my decision. If I compromise today, how will I impress on my kids to stand by their principles tomorrow. Several other spouses and even the parents of some first-time winners were proud of the stand they took. We are artistes, we make films to vent our anger and disappointment over certain issues. If we compromise on this issue, we might do so with our films too.

Any grouses against the jury?
None. I’m told they saw over 300 films and many of the winners were small indie regional films like mine. Walking With The Wind (pictured below) is a Ladakhi film shot in a small village in the mountains with local artistes playing out real life roles, made on a shoe-string budget in 17 days. Yet, it bagged the award for Best Sound Design and Re-Recording over films with multi-crore budgets. I knew we’d made a good film which had been screened in competition at many major festivals abroad, but I didn’t think it stood a chance at the National Awards. I salute the jury on their choices.

Will your decision to skip the ceremony impact your future?
I can lose everything but I’ll always stand by what I believe in. It’s not ego or arrogance but conviction. I made my first film with my own money, was fortunate to get backers for the next two. If I had to think of the future I’d not be making films.

How did someone from Madhya Pradesh living in Mumbai decide to make a Ladakhi film?
For me it’s an Indian film which demanded to be shot in the mountains. I found a village on a reccee in Ladakh in December 2015. It was at 13,000 feet, with minimal electricity, a makeshift hospital and only a weekly bus service but its 30-40 inhabitants are the happiest I’ve seen. We stayed in tents for 22 days, braving showers and shortage of oxygen. Phunchok Toldan, the local who played the father in the film, watched the ceremony on TV and stood by my decision. I’ll write to the Leh Council to organise a small felicitation for the film’s cast.

Over 60 winners, who alleged “discrimination”, refused to accept their awards from Smriti Irani, after last-minute change in schedule that saw the Prez hand out only 11 awards
Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 4, 2018)

The National Film Awards ceremony, which took place on Thursday at the Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi was a forlorn affair, with about half of the 120-odd awardees choosing to skip the event. Over 60 seats were empty, and the nameplates of those who boycotted the event were kept face down.

Their boycott – on the discontent among the awardees – was a reaction to the breach of a 65-year-old tradition of the awards being handed over by the President.

On Thursday, however, President Ram Nath Kovind presented only 11 awards, while Information & Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani, and her minister of state Rajyavardhan Rathore gave away the rest.

Filmmaker Praveen Morchhale, who was among those who skipped the ceremony, told Mirror that several awardees, were hurt because of “the discrimination that was without any basis”.

“We did not ‘boycott’ the ceremony nor did we disrespect anyone — we simply skipped it. We would have been happy if the I & B minister would have presented all the awards instead of a select few being chosen to receive them from the President,” said Morchhale, whose Walking With The Wind bagged the award for Best Film (Ladakhi), Best Sound Design and Best Re-recording. Late actors Sridevi, and Vinod Khanna, who was also a BJP MP, were among those felicitated posthumously by the President. Boney Kapoor, Sridevi’s husband, and Kavita Khanna and Akshaye Khanna, wife and son of Vinod Khanna, received the awards.

“We are left with no choice but to express our disappointment and convey to you that at the end of the day we feel dejected rather than honoured for our work. It feels like a breach of trust when an institution/ceremony that abides by extreme protocol fails to inform us of such a vital aspect of the ceremony with prior notice. It seems unfortunate that 65 years of tradition is being overturned in a jiffy,” stated a letter signed by the protesting recipients, which was issued by them at an impromptu press conference ahead of the ceremony and which was addressed to Chaitanya Prasad, additional director general, Directorate of Film Festivals, and marked to both the President and the I & B Ministry.

Pointing out that the National Awards are different from other awards and urging the government “to maintain the dignity and eminence of the event” without a “display of hierarchy”, the letter also said, “in the circumstance of not receiving a response to our grievance we are left with no option but to be absent from 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 petition calling for skipping the ceremony was signed by over 60 winners, including Nagraj Manjule (Best Direction, Pavasacha Nibandha, Marathi); K J Yesudas (Best Male Payback Singer for the song “Poi Maranja Kalam” from the Malayalam film Vaswasapoorvam Mansoor); and Jayaraj (Best Director for the Malayalam film Bhayanakam). However, all three accepted their awards on Thursday evening from the President who was flanked by Irani and Rathore.

The awardees learnt of the change in the schedule and felicitators on Wednesday afternoon during rehearsals for the event, and conveyed their grievance to Irani who, said a source, assured them that she would convey them to Rashtrapati Bhavan and would get back once she heard from the President’s office. Later in the evening, the source said that all the awardees were verbally asked to be present at Vigyan Bhavan by 3:15 pm on Thursday. The source added that the final decision to skip the ceremony was taken after there was no official word from the I & B minister.

The President’s press secretary Ashok Malik said in a statement: “The President attends all award functions and convocations for a maximum of one hour. This has been the protocol since he took office (August 2017). It was conveyed to Information and Broadcasting Ministry several weeks ago and the ministry knew this all along. Rashtrapati Bhavan is surprised by the 11th hour questions that have been raised.”

Meanwhile, several of the winners, who refused to accept their awards from Irani, watched the telecast of the ceremony in the lobby of Hotel Ashok where they were put up. “What should have been one of the happiest days of our lives is a sad one for many of us,” one of them told Mirror.

—Inputs from Lakshmi Iyer