Malayalam film industry can boast of the maximum number of entries in the 44th International Film Festival of India (IFFI). Six Malayalam films have been selected to the Indian Panorama, the opening film of the section being ‘Kanyaka Talkies’ directed by K R Manoj.
‘Celluloid’ by Kamal, ‘Shutter’ by Joy Mathew, ‘Artist’ by Shayama Prasad, ‘101 Chodyangal’ by Sidhartha Siva, ‘Kunjananthante Kada’ by Salim Ahmed are the other films selected from Malayalam.
Hindi and Bengali came second with five films each, while three from Marathi and two from English. One film each have been selected from Tamil, Konkani, Kannada, Mising and Oriya. ‘Kanyaka Talkies’, the directorial debut of K R Manoj, has also been selected for ‘India Gold’, the competition section of the 15th Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) from October 17 to 24.
Sidhartha Siva’s film had bagged national award for the ‘Best First Film of a Director’ and is also in the competition section of International Film Festival of Kerala-2013.
There was a controversy earlier this year, as ‘Shutter’, directorial debut of Joy Mathew, which won the Audience Prize Rajata Chakoram after being rated as the best by delegates in IFFK-2012, was denied any major award by the state film award committee.
“The selection to the Indian Panorama is a reply to the state and national award juries which rejected ‘Shutter’”, director Joy Mathew told ‘Express’.
The jury for feature films, headed by filmmaker and editor B Lenin, selected 25 films out of 210 eligible entries. Hindi film ‘Pan Singh Tomar’, directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia, which won ‘Best Feature Film Award’ at the recent 60th National Film Awards, is the 26th film of Indian Panorama, by virtue of direct entry.