THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Dramatic scenes disrupted the inaugural day of Open Forum of the 16th International Film Festival of Kerala on Saturday.
The situation took a nasty turn after chairman Priyadarshan’s reply to the question raised by a delegate on the exclusion of ‘Aadhimadhyantham’ film from the competition section of IFFK. He termed the argument of the delegate ‘out of context’ for the discussion of the day was on the theme ‘Freedom of expression in cinema’. The situation worsened as the delegates started engaging in a wordy duel with the guests on dais. The entry of Sherry, the director of ‘Aadhimadhyantham’ who was on the premises of the New Theatre into the venue complicated the situation.
Sherry said that though he had agreed to the chairman’s promise to include his film in the ‘world cinema category’ on Friday morning, the Minister for Cinema K B Ganesh Kumar went back on the promise by allowing just two screenings for the film in the festival. “The only fault that the court found with my film was the absence of subtitles in its DVD copy, which has to be done by the Academy at their own expense in the print,” Sherry pointed out.
Responding to him, Priyadarshan said that cinemas screened in the ‘world cinema section’ need not have to be included for competition also. The intervention of moderator Pandalam Sudhakaran too went in vain. Finally the chairman apologised for the entire issue and wished ‘Aadhimadhyantham’ to scale new heights in future. He also said that measures would be taken for not repeating the mistake the next time. “I am also uncertain whether I would be the chairman in the next season,” he added.