The controversy over the exclusion of director Kunjila Mascillamani's 'Asanghadithar' from the 3rd Women's International Film Festival (WIFF) of Kerala is gathering steam as more filmmakers and cinephiles are joining the ranks in support of the director.
Director Vidhu Vincent, in a Facebook post, announced that she has withdrawn her movie 'Viral Sebi', produced by N M Badusha, from the festival.
In an earlier post, Vidhu had published a poster announcing that the film would be screened at the Sree Theater in Kozhikode on Sunday. However, she later announced through a detailed Facebook post that she has decided to withdraw the movie from the festival in solidarity with Kunjila.
Citing reasons for her withdrawal, Vincent said she also backs the questions raised by Kunjila over publishing the criteria of including films in WIFF organised by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy. Kunjila was also not invited to a function to felicitate women filmmakers in the state, she wrote. She said that Kunjila deserved to be invited to such a function as a female film director and a native of Kozhikode.
"There are only a few women directors in Kerala. The Academy is well aware of this. Instead of encouraging their (women directors') big and small endeavours, the steps taken by the academy are making them lose their confidence and courage," she wrote in the Facebook post.
"The explanation they gave for not including her film 'Asanghadithar' in the festival was that it was a short film, which was part of an anthology. If so, it could have been included in the short film category,” she wrote.
She also pointed out that the academy's argument that unreleased films were given importance also doesn't stand valid as films released on OTT were screened at the festival.
Earlier, Kunjila, in a WhatsApp message had asked director Ranjith, the chairman of Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, about the criteria for the selection of films for the festival.
On Saturday, at the venue, she posed the same question to him in person while filming the episode on her mobile phone. Ranjith was seen largely ignoring her query.
Dramatic scenes were witnessed as she later barged into Kairali Theatre during the inaugural ceremony and staged a sit-in protest before policewomen dragged her away.
Meanwhile, state award winning actor-director Jeo Baby registered his protest on the issue in support of Kunjila and posted a note on his Facebook page. "The questions Kunjila Mascillamani has been asking over the past one week are the ones which have been raised for the past three years and which are still relevant.
"What are the criteria for the selection of films to international women's film festival?” he asked and added that knowing the answer from Chalachitra Academy is the right of those who trust in democracy.
Writer Bijukumar Damodaran also posted on Facebook that he was a writer who has been featuring articles for the past 17 years citing that Chalachitra Academy is not an entity that functions transparently and democratically. "It is the habit of the academy that it never projects an outlook, which is capable of lending any encouragement to the academic standard of Malayalam cinema and that it always excludes those who criticize and express their opinions.” he said in a long note.