The HC observed that the CBFC-certified version of the film was entitled to be screened at the festival.Panaji: It was a literal run for life for International Film Festival of India (IFFI) director Sunit Tandon on Wednesday. A day after the Kerala High Court ordered that Malayalam film S Durga be screened at the ongoing International Film Festival of India (IFFI) here, the organizers of the high-profile event seemed to be in no mood to respond to queries on its screening.
An open forum organized as part of the event witnessed dramatic moments as Tandon vehemently refused to answer a query regarding the festival committee's reaction to the court order.
As the event was about to conclude, S Durga's lead actor Kannan Nair rose and sought a reply from Tandon on the IFFI organizer's stance on the HC order. However, Tandon left the venue instantly, saying he could not answer the query.
He refused to answer despite repeated queries by journalists who were in no mood to let go of him. In a feeble voice, he was heard saying 'you would hear about it from us.' But he did not say when. Asked if he got any response from the I&B Ministry on the issue, he said "you will hear about it as soon as I hear from them."
On Tuesday, he had said that he cannot react to the court order as the case was between the makers of S Durga and the I&B Ministry.
Sanal writes to IFFI
The film's director Sanalkumar Sasidharan on Wednesday sent an email to the authorities concerned, seeking a slot for his film in the festival.
However, Kannan's attempt to hand over a hard copy of the letter to the authorities turned futile as they refused to accept it. A copy of the HC order was attached with the letter.
The court on Tuesday overruled the ministry's decision to drop S Durga from the list submitted by IFFI jury members. The court also directed the organizers of IFFI to include Sanal's film in the Indian Panorama of the festival.
Sanal had moved the court after his film was dropped from the festival. Three jury members - chairperson Sujoy Ghosh, director Gyan Correa, and writer Apurva Asrani, had earlier resigned from the jury in protest against the ministry decision.
The HC also observed that the CBFC-certified version of the film was entitled to be screened at the festival.
