Marathi filmmaker Ravi Jadhav said he felt as if he was slapped when his film "Nude" was pulled out from the Indian Panorama section of the upcoming International Film Festival of India (IFFI).
The director said the information and broadcasting ministry's decision to pull out Malayalam movie "S Durga" and his Marathi film "Nude", overruling the recommendation of the 13-member jury of the Panorama section, was highly disappointing.
"What is happening in the last few days is highly disappointing. In this film, in a particular sequence an artist gets slapped, unfortunately I feel like the reel artist who was at the receiving end," the director wrote on his Facebook page.
"... Yet I feel hopeful and optimistic like all other artists," said Jadhav, who has made films like "Banjo" (2016) and "Timepass" (2014).
Jadhav posted the teaser of "Nude" online after his film failed to make the cut. The movie depicts the struggle of a woman secretly working as a nude model in Mumbai.
"This is a teaser of the film 'Nude', the film that got striked (struck) out by the Information and Broadcasting ministry thus giving rise to debate and controversy," he wrote.
Jadhav also expressed his gratitude to the IFFI jury, media and his friends from the industry who came out in support of him after the film was dropped from the festival.
"I have sincerely made this film," he said sharing the link of the teaser.
After the ministry's decision to drop the two films, three jury members - filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh, head of the jury of IFFI's Indian Panorama section, scriptwriter Apurva Asrani and filmmaker Gyan Correa - resigned.
Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who is the chief of a nodal agency for the IFFI, yesterday said "Nude" did not have the censor board certificate.
"What information I have got is that the film 'Nude' is not a complete movie. It is without a censorship certificate, so we cannot show it in the IFFI. We can't show the film without the censorship certificate," Parrikar told reporters in Panaji.
He also said the decision to drop 'S Durga' from the festival, which will run from November 20-28, was taken to avoid hurting the sentiments of any community.
"The film was part of two festivals, including MAMI in Mumbai and Kerala Film Festival, but it was shown after adequate cuts to avoid any feelings to be hurt. It was submitted to IFFI without any cuts," Parrikar said.
He said, according to the rules of the festival, a film cannot be shown with cuts at IFFI.
"S Durga", which was earlier titled "Sexy Durga", is a road movie that follows the horrifying experience of two hitchhikers, a man and a woman, at the hands of two men. It won the Hivos Tiger Award in the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2017.
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