|
The long wait for the 53rd National Film Awards for 2006
continues, with the government preparing to reply in court next
week in an attempt to end the legal impasse created by a jury
member. Though it is time to announce the winners list for 2007,
the process has been delayed as a decision on the 2006 awards is
still pending in court.
Expressing concern over the delay P.V. Gangadharan, vice
president of the Federation of International Film Producers
(FIAPF), has written to Information and Broadcasting (I&B)
Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, urging him to take immediate steps
to announce the 2006 awards.
The controversy began in May last year when Shyamali Deb Banerjee,
one of the jury members, objected to the selections in five award
categories by filing a petition in Delhi High Court.
She cited Sanjay Leela Bhansali's critically acclaimed "Black",
which has Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukerji in the lead roles,
saying the film was not an original work and hence wasn't eligible
for awards. "Black" has been nominated for both best film and best
actor.
She also objected to the jury's decision to give awards to
"Parzania" and "Parineeta".
"The decision for best direction has gone to 'Parzania', which is
absolutely a wrong choice. It makes a mockery of the Indian
democratic system and ends with just forming a human rights
commission for a probe into the matter - the communal riots between
Hindus and Muslims," she said in her petition.
"This film has been banned in Gujarat and I believe if the highest
National Film Award (best director) goes to this film, it may fan
further controversy and the Indian secular system may be at stake.
"Moreover, the best director award does demand a strong presence of
the director himself (his uniqueness) in the film which is absent
in this film, which looks like a mere reportage," she added.
On the jury's decision to give the Indira Gandhi Award for the
best first film to "Parineeta", Banerjee said: "The objective of
the National Film Award is not to promote any commercial,
high-budget film." The petition also said it was an adaptation from
a popular novel and not an original work.
Banerjee's petition ended up postponing the announcement of the
2006 winners list for an uncertain period. In May this year the
government decided to make the announcement but once again the
court order restrained it from doing so.
An I&B ministry official said: "The government has given an
affidavit in court, saying it will not announce the awards of 2006
till there is a green signal from the court."
Now everything depends on the next hearing set for July 26.
The 53rd National Film Award had earlier run into another
controversy when well-known documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan
filed a case against the information and broadcasting ministry,
asking it to revise the rules of entry for documentary films.
"Our case began in 2006 when the government published the rules for
the 53rd National Film Awards (NFA) stating that videos and digital
format films were no longer eligible," Patwardhan told IANS.
"So we went to court and argued that as independent documentary
filmmakers can't afford to make celluloid films and make films on
video or digital formats, this was gross discrimination.
"We also argued against the requirement of censor certificates in
the NFA. We think the jury should see the original work of a
filmmaker because they are giving awards to a filmmaker for his
work not to the censor for toning it down," he added.
Patwardhan won the case in the Mumbai High Court but the NFA
organisers did not heed the high court verdict about screening
uncensored films for the jury.
"However, the government, to correct its mistake, went to the
Supreme Court against us and the Supreme Court seems to have
rewarded them by overturning the case," said Patwardhan.
"The Supreme Court upheld that videos and digital films can be
eligible but the censor certificate requirement for National Awards
cannot be changed by a court order."
He has again gone to court against the censor factor.
Be it Patwardhan's fight for freedom of expression or Banerjee's
for originality, the legal battle has affected the excitement
related to the country's prestigious award.
By Arpana
|
