Sohan Roy, director of controversial film Dam 999, on Monday appeared before Tamil Nadu's Principal Secretary (Home) Rameshram Mishra and presented his case against the ban imposed on the movie by the State government.
The personal hearing for Mr. Roy was originally scheduled for Thursday. But it happened on Monday following a Supreme Court directive to the State.
The hearing went on for 45 minutes, and it was a “friendly talk,” Mr. Roy told The Hindu on the phone.
The questions posed to him were essentially about his visit to the Mullaperiyar dam and the content on his website about the film, he said.
He had visited the dam site because “it is my moral responsibility, fundamental duty” to do so. “I have not done anything against the Constitution.”
As for his film, he maintained that “I have not hurt the sentiments of Tamils.”
The hearing was held as per the Tamil Nadu Cinemas (Regulation) Act, 1955, under which the screening of the film was suspended in the State. The suspension order was issued on November 24, owing to emergency, and the government was satisfied that it was not reasonably practicable to give the persons concerned an opportunity for showing cause within a day as the release was set for November 25. The suspension was extended by two more weeks from December 8.
On December 7, there was a hearing for the film's distributor in the State, R.V. Mahalingam. Mr. Roy was to have been heard on the same day, but the hearing was postponed to December 15 after he expressed, in a letter, his inability to attend the hearing in Chennai on Wednesday because he would have to be in New Delhi in connection with a case he had filed in the Supreme Court against the State's decision to suspend the screening.
On Thursday last, the Supreme Court asked the State government to hear Mr. Roy's objections on December 12 and pass appropriate orders by December 16.
