Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 8, 2017)

It’s not every day that you find Russell Crowe raving about and recommending an Indian film. As President of the grand jury of the inaugural Asian Film Award at the 7th Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards (AACTA) that concluded in Sydney on Wednesday, the Academy Award-winning Australian actor was floored by Aamir Khan’s wrestling-drama, Dangal, and announced that it was an honour to be on stage and announce it as the winner. “A beautiful & empowering film, See it,” he urged as he handed the award to cast member Sakshi Tanwar who requested a hug and got it. Anupam says, “Russell Crowe is a warm, affectionate man, who speaks well and even retweeted my posts.”

Short-listed from among 200 entries, the lineup of nine nominees at AACTA showcasing the calibre, range and diversity of Asian cinema, included Wolf Warrior, the highest-grossing Chinese film ever and the first and only non-Hollywood film in the list of all-time 100 top grossers and the critically-acclaimed Japanese animated film, Your Name. There was also Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui’s war epic Our Time Will Come, South Korean zombie horror film, Train To Busan, Filipino Oscar entry, Birdshot, as also two other Indian films, Shoojit Sircar’s Hindi film Pink and the Marathi film Kaasav, both National Award winners. “I was happy and proud to see three Indian films in the list of nine of the best from Asia. Everyone unanimously voted for Dangal,” Anupam says.

Anupam who has to his credit over 500 films, the most recent being the widely-acclaimed Hollywood romcom, The Big Sick, which recently bagged six nominations at the Critics’ Choice Awards, as also biggies like the Golden Globe nominated Bend It Like Beckham, Ang Lee’s 2007 Golden Lion winner Lust, Caution, and David O Russell’s 2012 Oscar-winning Silver Linings Playbook, had the honour of presenting the Best Actor trophy in the main category. Sunny Pawar was the surprise winner who plays the lost boy Saroo Brierley in Garth Davis’ inspiring drama Lion, and became the youngest best actor winner, beating Simon Burke who was 15 when he won an Australian Film Institute Award for The Devil’s Playground in 1976. The charismatic nine-year-old thanked everyone from Kolkata where he’s shooting for a new film while his delighted director admitted that he had been praying Sunny would win.

Lion claimed 12 awards from 12 nominations, including best film, best direction and best supporting actor awards for Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel, after seven craft prizes. “It was a great feeling to see Indian actors and Indian cinema being recognized in that part of the world too,” says Anupam.

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.”