IFFI jury chief Sujoy Ghosh resigns after S Durga, Nude dropped from festival

Filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh who was the head of jury at the 48th International Film Festival of India IFFI has reportedly resigned from the post after the information and broadcasting ministry overruled the decision of the IFFI jury and pulled out Malayalam movie S Durga and Marathi film Nude from IFFI which will be in Goa later this monthIFFI jury chief Sujoy Ghosh resigns after S Durga Nude dropped from festivalSujoy Ghosh confirmed to The Indian Express that he has resigned as head of the jury but declined to offer any commentS Durga director Sanal Kumar Sasidharan and Nude director Ravi Jadhav said they are shocked and disappointed by the decision to drop the films from the Panorama section A jury member who spoke on the condition of anonymity termed the ministrys decision unprecedented The ministry did not respond to the reports The jurys recommendations are final and cannot be changed without consulting them But the ministry has gone ahead and dropped the two films on its own he saidNude he added is so good that the 13member Panorama jury recommended it as the opening film for 48th International Film Festival of India in Goa from November 2028 He described Nude as a strong feminist film and S Durga a movie with a strong message about womens safety The Malayalam film was orginally called Sexy Durga and had won awards in international film festivalsAccording to him the jurys recommendation is usually made public almost immediately after it hands the list to the ministers office The jury submitted its list to the ministry on September 2021 but the lineup was made public only recently and without the name of the two films he disclosed A disheartened Sasidharan alleged that the list was delayed on purposeHe said he is in shock and has not received any letter from the ministry about why S Durga did not make the cut The film a road movie that follows the horrifying experience of two hitchhikers a man and a woman at the hands of two men in the dead of the night won the Hivos Tiger Award in the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2017 Sasidharan told PTI that hes planning to approach the court after this clever move by the ministryThey are supposed to publish the list twothree weeks before the festival begins but they delayed it on purpose It was a clever move Theres only a week left till the festival and it will be difficult for us to go to the court now But I will file a case in the Kochi High Court Sasidharan said The director said some jury members told him the two films were in the list given to the ministryJadhav whose film depicts the struggle of a woman secretly working as a nude model in Mumbai is equally disappointed He said he has written a letter to the ministry to know what exactly happened and why his film was rejected Give me some reason at least It was selected as the opening film It was a big honour I am really disappointed and shocked to hear that it has been dropped Nobody informed me about the decision Jadhav told PTIJadhav whose previous credits include critically acclaimed films such as Natrang Balak Palak and Balgandharva said it is difficult for him to accept that a selected film has been dropped without any explanation My film was chosen for this you cant take away my right Just talk to me once My experience of IFFI in all these years has been very good My previous films were screened there as wellHe said he didnt make the film to titillate anybody It is Jadhav said dedicated to nude models across the world who give their body for the education of art students Rajesh Kumar Singh a member of the preview committee that selects entries from the Indian Panorama section for the international competition at IFFI took up the issue of the two films on TwitterSexy Durga is now part of Indian Panorama section at IFFI and will now be exhibited at Goa and across India Singh a producerdirector tweeted on November 9 tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani He put out another tweet again tagging Irani If any of the Panorama Jury dares to disagree with the decision to drop two artistically bad films Nude amp Sexy Durga from Panorama line up their understanding of film art amp craft is poor It was a bad decision to select these third rate films in Panorama smritiiraniScriptwriter Apurva Asrani a jury member has praised the films for presenting a powerful amp empathetic portrait of women in todayiquests India The opening film for the festival now is the Hindi film Pihu by Vinod KapryWith inputs from PTI