Stalled screening of 19 films; Shashi Tharoor MP calls IFFK crisis 'unfortunate'

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Shashi Tharoor MP, called the central government’s decision to delay screening of 19 films at the International Film Festival unfortunate. Tharoor said he contacted Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and intervened in the matter. Shashi Tharoor informed about this through his X page.

“It is most unfortunate that an unseemly controversy has arisen over the central government's denial of clearance to 19 films which were scheduled to be screened at the International Film Festival of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram.

The original list was much longer, but several clearances were obtained after I intervened with Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. The list of 19 films suggests an extraordinary degree of cinematic illiteracy on the part of the bureaucracy. To deny clearance to a classic like “Battleship Potemkin”, a 1928 film on the Russian Revolution which has been viewed by literally hundreds of millions around the world (and in India) over the last century, is laughable. Denying permission to some Palestinian films reflects bureaucratic over-cautiousness rather than the cultural breadth of vision that should be involved when it comes to world cinema.”

The screening of 19 films was in crisis due to the failure to obtain a censor exemption certificate.