Remember the last scene from the film Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron when the two characters Vinod and Sudhir turn to the camera and make a cut-throat gesture signifying the death of justice? On Thursday afternoon, Kundan Shah, maker of this cult comedy, repeated the throat-slitting gesture while returning his national award for the same film- that satirized corruption in the country-with which he had made his debut.
Shah was part of a list of 24 members from the film fraternity including prominent names like filmmaker Saeed Mirza, cinematographer Virendra Saini and writer Arundhati Roy who added their medals to the growing pile of returned awards, giving greater momentum to the act of 12 frontline filmmakers returning the national awards a week ago over the government's "apathy" in addressing students' issues at FTII and the environment of intolerance.
Even though the deadlock at the Film and Television Institute of India has ended, the dissenting voices returning their awards, each with an individual explanation, spanned almost the entire spectrum of the film industry including filmmakers, screenplay writers, audiographers, cinematographers, editors and docu-filmmakers with FTII alumni as the majority. "We are trying to bring public attention back to the manner in which the current government is responding to dissent and debate," read the joint statement addressed to the President and Prime Minister of India.
Arundhati Roy, who had previously turned down the Sahitya Akademi award in 2005 when the Congress was in power, stated: "I am very pleased to have found a National Award (best screenplay for In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones) that I can return because it allows me to be a part of a political movement initiated by writers, filmmakers and academics in the country who have risen up against a kind of ideological viciousness... "
What seems to have stoked the tolerance debate further and fanned this fresh wave of outburst has been a series of recent incidents when the screening of a student film on caste politics was stopped because of the mention of beef and certain leaders of the ruling party belittling Shah Rukh Khan, among others.
Shah was part of a list of 24 members from the film fraternity including prominent names like filmmaker Saeed Mirza, cinematographer Virendra Saini and writer Arundhati Roy who added their medals to the growing pile of returned awards, giving greater momentum to the act of 12 frontline filmmakers returning the national awards a week ago over the government's "apathy" in addressing students' issues at FTII and the environment of intolerance.
Even though the deadlock at the Film and Television Institute of India has ended, the dissenting voices returning their awards, each with an individual explanation, spanned almost the entire spectrum of the film industry including filmmakers, screenplay writers, audiographers, cinematographers, editors and docu-filmmakers with FTII alumni as the majority. "We are trying to bring public attention back to the manner in which the current government is responding to dissent and debate," read the joint statement addressed to the President and Prime Minister of India.
Arundhati Roy, who had previously turned down the Sahitya Akademi award in 2005 when the Congress was in power, stated: "I am very pleased to have found a National Award (best screenplay for In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones) that I can return because it allows me to be a part of a political movement initiated by writers, filmmakers and academics in the country who have risen up against a kind of ideological viciousness... "
What seems to have stoked the tolerance debate further and fanned this fresh wave of outburst has been a series of recent incidents when the screening of a student film on caste politics was stopped because of the mention of beef and certain leaders of the ruling party belittling Shah Rukh Khan, among others.
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