Ravi Jadhav's Marathi film Nude and Sanal Kumar Sasidharan's Malayalam film S Durga have been pulled off the list of films to be screened in the Indian Panorama section at the 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry, led by Smriti Irani.
Both films were chosen by a jury of 13 members, namely Gopi Desai, Ruchi Narain, Sachin Chatte, Suresh Heblikar, Rahul Rawail, Gyan Correa, Satarupa Sanyal, Nishikant Kamat, Merlvin Mukhim, Nikkhil Advani, Apurva Asrani, Hari Viswanath, led by filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh. Reportedly, the jury was not consulted for the films' replacement.
Nude is about a woman's struggle as a nude model in Mumbai. The film was to open the Indian Panorama section. Howecer, it has been replaced by Vinod Kapri's Hindi film Pihu.
Sanal's film, S Durga, was recently screened at the 19th Mumbai Film Festival after it changed its title from Sexy Durga to S Durga and was passed by the Censor Board of Film Certification with U/A certificate. Name of the film replacing S Durga at IFFI is not annouced yet.
Writer-director Ruchi Narain told tabloid Mumbai Mirror, "The final list that has come out does not match the list we submitted. Personally, I felt Nude and S Durga were stunning quality films which festival audiences would really appreciate."
Another jury member anonymously said, "My guess is that the people who took this decision did not bother watching either of the two films, because had they done so, they would have realized that Nude has no intention to titillate, while S Durga is a thriller, and there's nothing sexy about it."
Furthermore, a source also told the tabloid that "the move went against Clause 8.5 of the Indian Panorama 2017 Regulations, which states that "the decision of the juries shall be final and binding and no appeal or correspondence regarding their decision shall be entertained."
There is no word as yet if the jury or filmmakers plan to contest the changes.
The 48th International Film Festival of India will be held from 20-28 November, 2017.