'The Kashmir Files' row: 3 IFFI jurors back Nadav Lapid, Indian member Sen differs

Sudipto Sen the lone Indian in the jury board of the justconcluded International Film Festival of India Saturday maintained that the remarks made by Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid about The Kashmir Files were his personal opinion even as three other cojurors came out in support of the jury headSens assertion comes after three members American producer Jinko Gotoh French film editor Pascale Chavance and French documentary filmmaker Javier Angulo Barturen released a statement on Twitter endorsing Lapids comments that caused a huge controversy earlier this weekThe account from which Gotoh posted the statement is unverified Sens name is also not mentioned in itAs a board member I stand by that we didnt award The Kashmir Files We only awarded five films This decision was unanimous And we gave an official presentation to the NFDC and the festival authority After that jury boards work is doneNow after that if somebody goes in public and pick up one particular film and say something which is not expected then that is his personal feeling It has nothing to do with the jury board Sen told PTILapid who served as the chairperson of IFFIs international jury termed The Kashmir Files a vulgar and propaganda movie in his speech at the award ceremony during the closing night of the nineday film festival on MondayThe Kashmir Files penned and directed by Vivek Agnihotri portrays the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from Kashmir following the killings of people from the community by Pakistanbacked terroristsThe film which opened to polarised reactions on March 11 is one of the most commercially successful Hindi films of the yearIn the joint statement tweeted by Gotoh the three jury members said they stand by Lapids statement which he made on behalf of the juryAlso Read Anupam Kher drops video from The Kashmir Files look testAnd to clarify we were not taking a political stance on the films content We were making an artistic statement and it saddens us greatly to see the festival platform being used for politics and subsequent personal attacks on Nadav That was never the intention of the jury the statement readAsked whether he was approached for the statement Sen said they know that he doesnt agree with themI was the only Indian in the jury I should have been part of that statement of the jury board If they have excluded me that means they know that Sudipto does not stand by it because that is not the truthNow theyre not in the country I am in the country So I wouldve been the best person to defend that but they did not include me It means its not the jury boards decision If it is unanimous jury boards decision why my name is not in this statement he saidAs a rule jury board cant talk about one particular film he addedWe are a responsible jury The government of India has given us some responsibility How can I speak about one particular film which has not been selected when there are another 16 films that were also not been selected If you are picking up one film to talk about then it sounds like that you have certain personal agenda the filmmaker saidIn his speech at the closing ceremony of IFFI 2022 Lapid had said he was disturbed and shocked to see the film being screened at the film festivalAll of us were disturbed and shocked by the movie The Kashmir Files It felt to us like a propaganda and vulgar movie that was inappropriate for an artistic and competitive section of such a prestigious film festivalI feel comfortable to openly share this feeling with you since the spirit of the festival can truly accept critical discussion which is essential for art and life the filmmaker had saidSen said Nadav never consulted with other members what he was going to say at the closing ceremonyI came to know one NFDC gentleman told us that he took a print out of something which came to hi which was not given to him So what he read out it was not an official statement It is his statement The citations that we read out they were official he addedThe Kashmir Files featured Anupam Kher Darshan Kumar Mithun Chakraborty and Pallavi Joshi among others Both Kher and Agnihotri have targeted Lapid for his remarksAgnihotri said he will quit filmmaking if Lapid is able to prove that events depicted in his film are false while the veteran actor called the Israeli writerdirector a person who himself is vulgar and an opportunistThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever