THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Senior actor and filmmaker Balachandra Menon has alleged that his film Samaantharangal lost the national award for Best Feature Film due to the intervention of Malayali jury members. Stating that he had to share the Best Actor award with another actor due to this intervention, he released a video of the jury member Devender Khandelwal validating his allegations. However, despite media questions, Balachandra Menon refrained from naming anyone. He was speaking at a press conference ahead of his 50th anniversary in Malayalam cinema at the Trivandrum Club on Saturday.
“When the award determination was completed, I was the only best actor award winner, and my film was the best feature film. But some Malayali panellists intervened in between, and the rest is the winners’ list that you see now,” Menon said. He also released a video of jury member Devender Khandelwal, in which he is seen validating the director’s claims.
“When almost every jury member was convinced about Menon’s film, a few of them suddenly disagreed with this decision. One of them was even a Malayali, and I was shocked to see that,” Khandelwal is seen remarking in the video.
Written and directed by Menon himself, Samaantharangal earned two laurels in the 1997 National Awards, including his shared best actor award with Suresh Gopi, and the Best Film on Family Welfare. The jury was chaired by renowned South Indian actress B Saroja Devi.
Commenting that actors should be likeable to the public to build an emotional connection with the characters, he opined that the key reason why many films fail to connect with the audience today is due to this.
Remarking that every film will have its unique reason for succeeding at the box office, he also announced that he will soon be commencing his next directorial. “’Story, screenplay, dialogue, direction’ is my format of filmmaking. I cannot make films unless I helm all these,” he said. Menon also shared that he is not interested in entering politics.