Filmmaker Sajin Baabu, a jury member of the South panel for the 69th National Film Awards, has accused the organisers of denying him an invitation to the National Awards ceremony to be held on Tuesday.
According to Mr. Baabu, he is probably being sidelined because he brought to light a procedural lapse on the part of Kerala State Film Development Corporation (KSFDC) with regard to their submission for the 69th National Film Awards, a movie produced by the Corporation after the declaration of the awards.
“Out of the 31 jury members in the South panel from across the five States, all the 30 members except me have received the invitation for the ceremony. When I learned that my fellow jury members had received their invitation, I waited for a while and after receiving no official email, I tried contacting the National Film Awards cell last week. But all my phone calls, personal messages and official emails have not been responded to. I have not been informed of the reason for this exclusion. Even when fellow jury members and well-wishers have contacted the 69th NFA cell to understand the reason behind this, no clear reasons have been given to them either,” says Mr.Baabu.
