The cancellation of parallel screening of the film ‘Papilio Buddha’ at the Co-Bank Towers here on Thursday following a police directive, has led to protests.
The issue began when a group reached the spot to discover that the screening was cancelled. The officials said that they have received an informal directive from the police not to allow screening as it may create tensions. Following this, activists including social scientist J Devika, poet Kureepuzha Sreekumar and Dalit intellectual K K Baburaj staged a protest in front of the hall. Later, the group forcefully opened the doors of the hall and entered it demanding the film be screened.
However, they left the hall following the intervention of Prakash Bare, producer of the film. After discussing the issue with police officials, they left the spot and staged a protest in front of the Kairali theatre.
The Central Board of Film Certification’s regional panel had rejected the film outright on the ground that it contained remarks against national leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi apart from depiction of extreme violence and torture of women by police.
Meanwhile, Museum Police Sub-Inspector J Pradeep said that the police had acted following a Special Branch report about the screening of the controversial film.
The organisers had claimed that the film had got Censor Board’s clearance. But they could not produce any certificate in this regard, he said. He, however, said that the organisers themselves gave up the plan to screen the film to avoid problems. He added that the police had no information about whether the film was actually banned or not.