Kerala HC overrules I&B ministry, orders screening of S Durga at #IFFI

The Kerala High Court has overruled the information and broadcasting ministry’s decision to arbitrarily drop the Malayalam film S Durga from the ongoing International Film Festival of India (IFFI) and directed the organisers to exhibit it.

Director Sanal Kumar Sashidharan had moved court in outrage last week, questioning the “illegal, arbitrary and unjust exclusion” of the movie.

The film had earlier been selected by the festival jury and jury members – chairperson Sujoy Ghosh, director Gyan Correa, and writer Apurva Asrani – had resigned from the panel in protest.

On Tuesday, the court said the director had been denied natural justice, and ordered that the version of the film that had been certified by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) could be screened at the festival, The Hindu reported.

The I&B ministry argued that the film’s title, which has been changed to S Durga from Sexy Durga, had offended religious sentiments. According to Live Law, Justice K Vinod Chandran rejected the objections of the ministry, noting that it had no powers to overrule the decision made by the festival jury.

“The jury has included the film for screening in the festival after viewing the uncensored version itself. When even the uncensored version was found to be worthy by the jury for presentation, there can be no objection raised as to the certified version being screened,” the single-judge bench said.

The HC’s order may affect the chances of another film, Nude, which the ministry has dropped from the Indian Panorama section of the film festival.