FTII row: Dibakar Banerjee, Paresh Kamdar & 8 other directors return their national awards as form of protest

"This was not an easy choice but an important one to highlight the current crisis"

Updated: October 28, 2015, 7:02 PM IST

https://www.india.com/news/india/ftii-row-dibakar-banerjee-paresh-kamdar-8-other-directors-return-their-national-awards-as-form-of-protest-665051/

Mumbai, Oct 28: Noted filmmakers Dibaker Banerjee and Paresh Kamdar along with eight other eminent directors have returned their national awards to the government of India as a mark of protest. The cinematographers have chose to mark their dissent against the Bharatiya Janata Party regime which has shown a stubborn attitude and paid absolutely no heed to the demands raised by the students at Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).

“I have taken the decision to return the national award conferred upon me for Khosla ka Ghosla. This was not an easy choice but an important one to highlight the current crisis,” Dibakar Banerjee said. He also mentioned the murder of rationalists Govind Pansare, MM Kalburgi and the subsequent inaction adopted to track the fringe as another reason for returning his award. Along with Dibakar, nine other celebrated member of the film fraternity have returned their honours. They include: Paresh Kamdar, Lipika Singh, Nishtha Jain, Anand Patwardhan, Kirti Nakhwa, Harsh Kulkarni and Hari Nair.

The students at FTII called off their 139-day strike against the government over the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as head of the premier institute, along with the inclusion of right-wing academicians in the governing council.

However, the protesters have declared that their agitation would continue without disrupting the academic course of the institute.