• Sudipto Sen spoke out about Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid’s comment regarding The Kashmir Files (IFFI).
• Sudipto expressed his opinion that his colleague juror Nadav’s remarks were “unethical” in a recent interview.
• The picture “did not match in the creative requirements we had,” he continued.

At the 53rd International Film Festival of India, filmmaker Sudipto Sen spoke out about Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid’s comment regarding The Kashmir Files (IFFI). Sudipto expressed his opinion that his colleague juror Nadav’s remarks were “unethical” in a recent interview. Sudipto reportedly claimed that The Kashmir Files was one of the 17 movies that had their nominations for the festival’s awards “rejected.” The picture “did not match in the creative requirements we had,” he continued.

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The Kashmir Files by Vivek Agnihotri was described as “vulgar and propagandist” in Nadav’s address during the award ceremony on the final night of the nine-day Goa film festival, for which he served as the chairwoman of the international jury. The Kashmir Files depicts the 1990s flight of Hindu Kashmiris from Kashmir. One of the year’s most financially successful Hindi films is this one. Along with others, it included Anupam Kher, Darshan Kumar, Mithun Chakraborty, and Pallavi Joshi.

Speaking with news agency, Sudipto has now said, “As a practice, etiquette and ethic, the jury board is supposed to talk about films that are awarded. We don’t talk about films that are not awarded. The jury board has nothing to do with someone bringing out a rejected film for discussion in a public forum. If one of us (members) randomly goes to talk about a film which wasn’t even awarded at some platform, I would find it unethical.”

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He also explained how the films are shortlisted for the award, “We received 22 films, from which we were supposed to give out 6 awards – Best film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Female Actor, Special Jury Award for aesthetics and artistic values and Best Debut Director Award. We saw each of the 22 films, and collectively analyzed each of them based on criteria like camera work, editing, sound, storytelling, acting etc. We shortlisted 5 films to be awarded. The judgement was collectively agreed upon by all jury members on the basis of the artistic values and format of the film festival.”

In a previous interview with a news organisation, Sudipto claimed that Nadav’s comments regarding The Kashmir Files were his own. Sudipto had said, “As a board member, I stand by that we didn’t award The Kashmir Files. We only awarded five films. This decision was unanimous. And we gave an official presentation to the NFDC and the festival authority.”

He had added, “After that jury board’s work is done. Now after that if somebody goes in public and pick up one particular film and say something which is not expected, then that is his personal feeling. It has nothing to do with the jury board.”