THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After nearly three years of persistent efforts to get his debut film ‘Kaliyachan’ released in theatres had turned futile, filmmaker Farook Abdul Rahiman has now got the much-needed backing from the social media.
Hundreds of filmlovers joined an e-mail campaign on Facebook, which finally elicited an assurance from the film’s producer National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) that the film will be released soon.
The official e-mail IDs of NFDC Managing Director was “bombarded” with over 86,000 e-mails within a week urging the release of the film which won three awards at the 2012 Kerala State Film Awards.
Besides winning the best debutant director award for Rahiman, ‘Kaliyachchan’ also bagged two other state awards - the second best actor award for Manoj K Jayan and the best background score for Bijibal. Bijibal also won the National award.
The film, completed in 2012, was screened in the competition section at the
International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) the next year and also in River to River Florence Indian Film Festival in Italy.
“At that time, the film earned rave reviews and I was hopeful that a movie which generated such great interest will be released soon before a wider audience,” Rahiman said.
“The idea of launching such a campaign was mooted by film lovers after my individual efforts to get the film released did not elicit any response from NFDC,” he added.
Rahiman’s campaign has also got the support of the Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA) and the Kerala Film Producers’ Association.
FEFKA general secretary B Unnikrishnan flayed the “lackadaisical attitude” of NFDC and alleged that the institution which was supposed to promote budding filmmakers and parallel cinema was playing with their future.
We have approached the State Government and we have been told that the matter will be taken up with the Union I&B Ministry,” Unnikrishnan said. Noted producer G Sureshkumar has also backed Rahiman’s efforts in getting the film released.
NFDC on its part romptly responded to most of the e-mails it received from film lovers assuring them that the film will be released “shortly”. “It is our absolute intention to release the film as soon as possible. We expect to release the two pending films‘Kaliyachan’ and ‘Vees Manjhe Vees’ this year and hope to release it across all platforms, like we did for the movie QISSA,” NFDC Managing Director Nina Lath Gupta told ‘Express’ in an e-mailed response.