Returning an award is a very small way of registering protest. It is a small way of expressing that you have freedom of speech and you can think. I am returning my only National Award to express my dissatisfaction over what has been happening with the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) issue, and the ideology that curtails freedom all over the country — on a cultural, educational and economic level. We are protesting all this. The cause is bigger than the award. It has to be.

Sound editor MP Satheesh, directors Madhusree Dutta, Saeed Mirza and Kundan Shah, editors Irene Dhar Malik and Bina Sarkar returned their National Awards at Mumbai Press Club yesterday. Pic/Onkar Devlekar