The 65th National Film Awards is mired in controversy as several of the awardees signed a joint statement announcing their decision to skip the award ceremony. The awards will be distributed at the Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on Thursday.
Recipients of the awards are disappointed that President Ram Nath Kovind will present the award to only 11 of the 137 awardees.
The winners were informed of this development only during the dress rehearsals on Wednesday. Traditionally, the awards are presented by the president personally every year.
The awardees were told that the rest of the National Film Awards would be handed over by Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Smriti Irani, Minister of State for I&B Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, and the I&B ministry's secretary Narendra Kumar Sinha. The president will arrive after most of the awards have been handed out, will present 11 awards, and then will have a photo-op with the winners in groups of 45, according to a report in the Mumbai Mirror.
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According to reports, Smriti Irani visited Vigyan Bhavan on Wednesday, and met some of the winners to ease the disappointment. However, that doesn't seemed to have helped as the new development has led to boycott calls from some of the awardees who are miffed at the violation of a tradition that has been in place since the inception of the National Film Awards in 1954.
“We as film makers and artists put in all that we have and tenaciously stick to our dreams in a field of work where appreciation does not come easy. We are disheartened to know that we will be deprived of the honour of this appreciation of a once in a lifetime moment and pride and glory that the National Film Awards had promised us.
The National Film Awards, unlike other awards ceremonies, has been considered as the most pristine and unbiased. We request that the dignity and eminence of this award is maintained and that there is no display of hierarchy at the event. We are disappointed to know that the Hon’ble President will be presenting the Award to just 11 awardees and not the remaining of about 120 of us,” reads the letter from the artists.
The letter has been signed by 69 artists including Malayalam director Jayaraj who won the award for Best Director, veteran singer K.J Yesudas (best male singer), Malayalam actor Fahadh Faasil (best male supporting actor). Actress Parvathy Thiruvoth and director Dileesh Pothan have also signed the petition. Others include Bahubali 2 co-producer Prasad Devineni, RC Kamalakannan who worked on VFX of the film, artists who worked with Marathi film Morkhya, among others.