Tiff over Oscar nomination of 'The Good Road' continues

It is not `The End’ of the feud as yet between the Film Federation of India (FFI) and ‘The Lunch box’ director Ritesh Batra.
The FFI has now circulated the letter of Ritesh Batra, written to the FFI, to all the jury members to take a call on whether Batra had tendered an `unconditional apology’ in his letter. The FFI had demanded the apology from him for the remarks that he made in the wake of his film not being selected as India’s nomination for the Oscars in the best foreign feature film category.
Asked whether the FFI considered the contents of Ritesh Batra’s letter as the `unconditional apology’ that they had asked for, FFI secretary general Supran Sen told The Times of India that copies of Batra’s letter had been sent to all the jury members. “It is over to the jury now,” Supran Sen.
When pointed out that the letter had been written by him and whether he was satisfied with Ritesh Batra’s reply, Supran Sen said he had only written the letter keeping the opinion of the jury members in mind.
It may be mentioned here that the screening of films submitted for selection as Indian’s entry for the best feature film category in the Oscars took place in Hyderabad last month. The 19-member jury chose the NFDC production `The Good Road’ despite the hype that was generated for `The Lunch Box’ directed by Ritesh Batra.
“We were maintaining a dignified silence till now amidst your constant ranting as we believed them to be the result of acute disappointment of a young boy with his debut film. Your presumptuous and dismissive comments without even seeing ‘The Good Road’ was highly objectionable but we let that pass. You will note that some member of the jury are icons in their own right with umpteen National Awards and some were felicitated to commemorate 100 years of Indian cinema. Yet you with just one film under your belt have openly scorned their choice and attribute it as ‘lack of vision’!” Supran Sen had said in the letter to Ritesh Batra on September 28 in which an unconditional apology also was demanded.
In response Ritesh Batra said: “If an apology is what you demand, you have it. Both you and the jury have my wholehearted apology.”
However, Batra went further and said: “I sincerely hope that the annual reactions to our Academy selections from the national press, and this year from even the international press, prompt a new policy for the selection. Sir, please use your good offices to give us a transparent, objective process with a public and not a secret jury. It is a direct and humble request, not a criticism.”
Replying to a question by TOI on the subject, Supran Sen made it clear that it was the prerogative of the FFI committee to decide on who should be in the jury. “It has been made clear in a High Court order that it is the FFI’s discretion to constitute the committee to select a film for the Oscars,” he said.