A group of movie enthusiasts here are planning a protest on Friday against the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting denying permission to screen Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s movie Sexy Durga at the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, scheduled to be held from October 12.
The film is yet to be cleared by the Censor Board of Film Certification. As it requires permission from the I&B Ministry to be screened at film festivals without certification, the film-maker had applied for it.
The director told The Hindu on Thursday that it should be viewed as an infringement of the freedom of expression and he would fight it out. “The film was to be premiered at the India Gold section at the film festival. Claiming that the title will hurt religious sentiments and cause law and order problems, they have denied it permission. I am planning to resubmit my application,” he said. The Ministry is learnt to have got around 1,000 complaints against the movie.
To protest against this, a city-based organisation, Minimal Cinema, is holding a meeting at the Open Screen, Mananchira Tower, at 4 p.m. Mr. Sasidharan and journalist Prem Chand will speak. Mr. Sasidharan’s movie Oralppokkam will be screened at 5.30 p.m.
Meanwhile, the film-maker has also launched an online petition in support of his movie, claiming that an unnecessary controversy had been created. “As many as 2,500 people have signed the petition. There is nothing against the goddess in the movie. Durga is the name of the protagonist, that’s all,” he added.
Sexy Durga is the first Malayalam film to win the Hivos Tiger Award at the International Film Festival, Rotterdam, 2017. The festival’s website says the director “investigates how obsessiveness and worship can quickly degenerate in a patriarchal society into a mentality of oppression and abuse of power.” Mr. Sasidharan had withdrawn this movie from the International Film Festival of Kerala as it was not included in the competition section.
