Director Kunjila Mascillamani posted a selfie wearing a police inspector's cap after being forcibly removed for protesting at the venue of the 3rd Women's International Film Festival that was inaugurated here on Saturday.
Mascillamani, who was protesting the organisers' decision to not include her film 'Asanghadithar' in the festival, raised slogans against the CPM and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, besides screaming "KK Rema zindabad".
Earlier on the day, Mascillamani had posted a screenshot of a message she sent director Ranjith, who is the chairman of Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, the organisers of the festival.
In her WhatsApp message that was in Malayalam, Kunjila had asked Ranjith about the criteria for the selection of films for the festival. Later, at the venue, she posed the same question to him in person while she filmed the events on her mobile phone.
Ranjith is seen largely ignoring Mascillamani. Later, the protester barged into the Kairali Theatre that was screening the inaugural ceremony and staged a sit-in before policewomen dragged her away.
Mascillamani kept shouting slogans against the CPM as the cops pushed her into a police jeep. It was while inside the jeep that she seemingly clicked selfies wearing a police officer's cap and posted the same on her Facebook with a caption: "I wore SI thoppi (cap) and clicked selfie. Front camera."
Ranjith told mediapersons that the manner of protest was inappropriate and claimed the reason for not considering Mascillamani's film was because it was part of an anthology and they couldn't just screen a particular film from the series at the festival.
