Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Wednesday that Nude and S Durga were dropped because the former was not fully complete and the latter was without cuts.
The Goa CM, who heads the State-owned Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG), which co-hosts IFFI, said that Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s S Durga had been screened at two other film festivals with cuts, to prevent flaring of religious sentiments.
“ Nude is not even complete. Even if it is selected by the jury, if it is not completed and unless it gets a certificate from Board for film Certification, unless the entire procedure is complete and it is ready, it cannot be screened. There will be an issue with the Cinematography Act,” Mr. Parrikar said.
As for ‘Sexy Durga’, Mr. Parrikar said, “They said that in two other film festivals, the film was shown with cuts, MAMI in Mumbai and Kerala Film Festival. They had even changed its name. It was censored. That was done to ensure that there was no eruption of religious sentiments and creation of problems. Here the film is given without cuts,” Mr. Parrikar said and accused certain sections of trying to rake up an unwarranted controversy.
When asked if that meant that the jury had erred in their selection job, Mr. Parrikar said he would not like to comment on that as he was not an expert.
“I don’t want to say anything on that. I am not an expert. I have told you what I enquired and found out from the Ianfomration & Broadcasting(I&B) Ministry,” said Mr. Parrikar.
The controversial dropping of the two movies from the festival’s Indian Panorama section has led to resignation of the head of jury Sujoy Ghosh. The Congress has accused the I&B Ministry of trying to “interfere with jury decisions”.
