[Yet another first! Modi won't be talking of. <<“We are left with no choice but to express our disappointment and convey to you that at the end of the day we feel dejected rather than honoured for our work. It feels like a breach of trust when an institution/ceremony that abides by extreme protocol fails to inform us of such a vital aspect of the ceremony with prior notice. ***It seems unfortunate that 65 years of tradition is being overturned in a jiffy*** [emphasis added],” stated a letter signed by the protesting recipients, which was issued by them at an impromptu press conference ahead of the ceremony and which was addressed to Chaitanya Prasad, additional director general, Directorate of Film Festivals, and marked to both the President and the I & B Ministry.>>]
https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/national-award-row-half-of-winners-stay-away-from-awards-ceremony/articleshow/64020647.cms NATIONAL FILM AWARDS ROW: HALF THE WINNERS STAY AWAY; AWARDS CEREMONY LEAVES PRESIDENT KOVIND'S OFFICE FUMING By Roshmila Bhattacharya, Mumbai Mirror | Updated: May 4, 2018, 12.23 AM IST Revolt at National Film Awards embarrasses I & B Ministry, leaves President’s office fuming Over 60 winners, who alleged “discrimination”, refused to accept their awards from Smriti Irani, after last-minute change in schedule that saw the Prez hand out only 11 awards. The National Film Awards ceremony, which took place on Thursday at the Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi was a forlorn affair, with about half of the 120-odd awardees choosing to skip the event. Over 60 seats were empty, and the nameplates of those who boycotted the event were kept face down. Their boycott – on the discontent among the awardees – was a reaction to the breach of a 65-year-old tradition of the awards being handed over by the President. On Thursday, however, President Ram Nath Kovind presented only 11 awards, while Information & Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani, and her minister of state Rajyavardhan Rathore gave away the rest. Filmmaker Praveen Morchhale, who was among those who skipped the ceremony, told Mirror that several awardees, were hurt because of “the discrimination that was without any basis”. “We did not ‘boycott’ the ceremony nor did we disrespect anyone — we simply skipped it. We would have been happy if the I & B minister would have presented all the awards instead of a select few being chosen to receive them from the President,” said Morchhale, whose Walking with the Wind bagged the award for Best Film (Ladakhi), Best Sound Design and Best Re-recording. Late actors Sridevi, and Vinod Khanna, who was also a BJP MP, were among those felicitated posthumously by the President. Boney Kapoor, Sridevi’s husband, and Kavita Khanna and Akshaye Khanna, wife and son of Vinod Khanna, received the awards. “We are left with no choice but to express our disappointment and convey to you that at the end of the day we feel dejected rather than honoured for our work. It feels like a breach of trust when an institution/ceremony that abides by extreme protocol fails to inform us of such a vital aspect of the ceremony with prior notice. It seems unfortunate that 65 years of tradition is being overturned in a jiffy,” stated a letter signed by the protesting recipients, which was issued by them at an impromptu press conference ahead of the ceremony and which was addressed to Chaitanya Prasad, additional director general, Directorate of Film Festivals, and marked to both the President and the I & B Ministry. We did not ‘boycott’ the ceremony nor did we disrespect anyone — we simply skipped it. We would have been happy if the I & B minister would have presented all the awards instead of a select few being chosen to receive them from the President. -Morchhale, Filmmaker Pointing out that the National Awards are different from other awards and urging the government “to maintain the dignity and eminence of the event” without a “display of hierarchy”, the letter also said, “in the circumstance of not receiving a response to our grievance we are left with no option but to be absent from the ceremony. We do not intend to boycott the award but are not attending the ceremony to convey our discontent and are awaiting a more just solution”. Read Also: The petition calling for skipping the ceremony was signed by over 60 winners, including Nagraj Manjule (Best Direction, Pavasacha Nibandha, Marathi); KJ Yesudas (Best Male Payback Singer for the song “Poi Maranja Kalam” from the Malayalam film Vaswasapoorvam Mansoor; and Jayaraj (Best Director for the Malayalam film Bhayanakam). However, all three accepted their awards on Thursday evening from the President who was flanked by Irani and Rathore. The awardees learnt of the change in the schedule and felicitators on Wednesday afternoon during rehearsals for the event, and conveyed their grievance to Irani who, said a source, assured them that she would convey them to Rashtrapati Bhavan and would get back once she heard from the President’s office. Later in the evening, the source said that all the awardees were verbally asked to be present at Vigyan Bhavan by 3:15 pm on Thursday. The source added that the final decision to skip the ceremony was taken after there was no official word from the I & B minister. The President’s press secretary Ashok Malik said in a statement: “The President attends all award functions and convocations for a maximum of one hour. This has been the protocol since he took office (August 2017). It was conveyed to Information and Broadcasting Ministry several weeks ago and the ministry knew this all along. Rashtrapati Bhavan is surprised by the 11th hour questions that have been raised.” What should have been one of the happiest days of our lives is a sad one for many of us. -National Film Awardee Meanwhile, several of the winners, who refused to accept their awards from Irani, watched the telecast of the ceremony in the lobby of Hotel Ashok where they were put up. “What should have been one of the happiest days of our lives is a sad one for many of us,” one of them told Mirror. —Inputs from Lakshmi Iyer 1/12 Boney Kapoor arrives at the venue with daughters Janhvi and Khushi Kapoor -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
