Malayali jury member alleges exclusion from National Film Awards ceremony, suspects KSFDC's hand

Thiruvananthapuram: In a bizarre incident, Director and jury member Sajin Baabu stated that he had not been invited to the presentation ceremony of the 69th National Film Awards on Tuesday.  

In a post shared on Facebook, Baabu claimed that all his peers have received either an invitation or official notification regarding the same. He went on to say organisers of the National Film Awards are yet to respond to his calls, emails, and messages. 

"My peers also tried to find the reason for my omission from the award ceremony. However, they also failed to receive further details regarding the same. The jury members, including myself, watched and reviewed the films for 20 days. I'm not sure why I didn't get the invitation while my peers did," he said. 

Meanwhile, Baabu pointed out that a critical Facebook post he posted following the announcement of the award winners might be the reason for omitting him from the ceremony. He also suspects Kerala State Film Development Corporation (KSFDC)'s intervention for the omission.

"My post brought to light a procedural lapse on the part of Kerala State Film Development Corporation with regard to the submission of a movie produced by them for the 69th National Film Awards. I pointed out the violation of certain NFA rules of Submission. Within a short time of sharing the Facebook post, I received a call from a prominent person at KSFDC. I made it clear to him that my intention was not to blame anyone. I only wanted to point out the mistake made in following the basic rules and regulations when submitting a movie for the National Film Awards, which especially should not happen from an organization like KSFDC. The person then told me he would talk to NFDC about it. A few minutes later, I received an official email from the NFA cell informing me that any disclosure of jury deliberations may lead to a ban on the jury member in the future," Sajin Baabu noted.