THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: State Film Awards 2016 has courted a controversy with allegations of norm violation cropping up in the selection of the best book on cinema.
“Cinema Muthal Cinema Vare” penned by Aju Narayanan and Cherry Jacob is accused of having articles published before. According to the award guidelines, books published in the previous year can only be submitted for the award.But a significant number of articles in the collection, reported to be 40 per cent, were published in periodicals before. Following allegations of rule violation, the Kerala State Chalachithra Academy consulted the jury which however did not recommend to cancel the selection.
Jury chairman K Jayakumar is reported to have asked the academy to change the guidelines in order to avoid similar allegations in future. However, if the matter is dragged to court, the academy will be forced to make a rethinking. The award function is scheduled to be held at Thalassery on September 10.
Besides the jury chairman, a subcommittee of the academy’s general council also discussed the matter. The committee, comprising V K Joseph, C S Venkiteswaran and G P Ramachandran found no anomalies in the selection.Academy’s secretary Mahesh Panju said the controversy was unwanted.