‘Will file contempt petition if S Durga is not screened’

PANAJI

: Director of the contentious film S Durga, Sanalkumar Sasidharan, on Saturday said he would file a contempt petition in the Kerala high court if his film was not screened at the 48th International Film Festival of India (Iffi).

Sasidharan

finally managed to hand over a certified copy of the film to festival director Sunit

Tandon

on Saturday evening. He, however, said Tandon failed to provide any assurance over when S

Durga

would be screened.

The director told

STOI

he was simply asked to submit the film and leave, without meeting Tandon. He was permitted to meet the festival director only after he being made to wait for 1.5 hours, following which he is believed to have created a scene.

“Tandon didn’t say anything. If the Iffi organisers don’t obey the high court’s order by Sunday, I will file a contempt petition,” he told STOI after submitting the censored version of the film and its censorship certificate on Saturday night.

Sasidharan said the team is now waiting for the film to be viewed by the jury before it is allowed to be screened under the Indian Panorama section at Iffi.

The crew of S Durga said the festival director continued to reiterate that he was not the right person to commit anything to them regarding the film’s screening schedule.

Sasidharan, who was in Australia, arrived Goa on Saturday to join the film’s lead actors, Kannan Nayar and Rajeshri Deshpande, to push for S Durga’s screening at Iffi. He had approached the Kerala high court when the Union information and broadcasting ministry decided to withdraw the film from Iffi.

In its subsequent judgment, the high court had ordered that the “certified version of the film S Durga will be viewed by the jury and on that basis, the film will be exhibited in the Indian Panorama of the 48th Iffi”.

After receiving no response from Iffi authorities, festival director Tandon sent an email to Sasidharan late Friday evening, referring to the November 24 order passed by the division bench of the Kerala high court, and requested him to provide the censored version of the film along with DVD copies and a copy of the censor certificate.

In its November 24 judgment, the high court of Kerala had ordered that the “certified version of the film S Durga will be viewed by the Jury and on that basis, the film will be exhibited in the Indian Panorama of the 48th Iffi”


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