EntertainmentPosted at: Nov 15 2017 4:36PM After Sujoy Ghosh, writer Apurva Asrani to resign from IFFI juryNew Delhi, Nov 15 (UNI) A day after filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh resigned as chairperson of the jury of the International film festival of India, writer Apurva Asrani has also decided to resign from the festival jury over dropping from the festival of two films that had been selected by the jury, trade sources said on Wednesday.Apurva Asrani had earlier voiced his protest over Ravi Jadav’s 'Nude', a Marathi film, and Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s Malayalam movie 'Sexy Durga' being dropped from the Indian panorama despite the films having been cleared by the jury.“Sexy Durga & Nude are among the best of contemporary cinema. They both present a powerful and empathetic portrait of women of today’s India,'' he had tweeted.The Information and Broadcasting Ministry had on November 9 announced the list of feature and non-feature films to feature for IFFI, which will be held from November 20 to 28 in Goa.The list did not include the names of Sanal Sasidharan’s Malayalam film S Durga and Ravi Jadhav’s Marathi film Nude despite the festival jury having selected the films.The decision of Sujoy Ghosh and Apurva Asrani has been lauded by the directors of the two films, Ravi Jadhav and Sanal Sasidharan.Taking to Facebook, Sasidharan described the decision of the jury members to resign as 'bold'."If they had not come out openly and the media took it up with ample weightage everything would have been very well covered up by the dictatorship. Jury chairman Sujoy Ghosh and one jury member Apurva Asrani has resigned. Another jury member Ruchi Narain has made open statement against the decision of the ministry. This is purely a fightback from them as artists. I know very well that, they did this with complete knowledge that the ruling party will use all the opportunity to harass them,"Sasidharan posted."As a filmmaker, I feel proud to live in a country where these people are also living and fighting. As a citizen I am feeling really sad and pessimistic about my country when I look around and see the cold response of the public at large. I really do not know, whether our society understands the evil it is going to face, if it live this ostrich life like this. I had lived in Saudi Arabia for one and half years and I know what is life without freedom. I had participated in hideout screenings conducted by Malayali associations. I fear that we are going in that direction and I can see darkness only. Please wake up.. please fight back,''he said.“Sexy Durga & Nude are among the best of contemporary cinema. They both present a powerful and empathetic portrait of women of today’s India,'' he tweeted.Noted filmmaker Shyam Benegal has also supported the decision of Sujoy to resign from the jury.“Government decided that a couple of films chosen by jury shouldn’t be there. If they override what jury does, their position becomes untenable. So jury or its chairman will have to resign,” Benegal said. “If a jury has been constituted and you disagree with their choice, then what is that jury supposed to be doing. What Sujoy Ghosh did is a correct thing,''he said.The jury had recommended 'Nude' as the opening film, with Sujoy calling it a 'strong feminist film' and also lauding 'S Durga' for its strong message about women's safety.Apart from Ghosh and Asrani, the feature film jury for IFFI also includes director Rahul Rawail, actor-director Gopi Desai, filmmaker Nishikant Kamat, director-writer Nikkhil Advani and director-writer Ruchi Narain.UNI AR SHK 1539Please log in to get detailed story.Tags: #After Sujoy Ghosh# writer Apurva Asrani to resign from IFFI jury
17 Apr 2024 | 3:29 PM