Off-beat filmmakers sore over national award jury

Some of national and state award winning Telugu filmmakers are unhappy with the selection of blockbusters over off-beat and socially-relevant movies in the 64th national awards announced recently. Out of 15-odd Telugu films sent for national awards, 5 to 6 films were message-oriented and topical films but were overlooked by the jury. “Personally, we have nothing against ‘Pellichoopulu’ or ‘Santhamanam Bhavathi’ but we are tad disappointed with the yardstick applied by the jury members.

We learnt that they were carried away by collections than actual content, like how a film made in a shoe-string budget of Rs 1 crore made more than Rs 15 crore and another film made with Rs 15 crore grossed Rs 45 crores, which was unfair. In t-town there are a andful of filmmakers who make path-breaking and socially-relevant films purely for bagging awards, than to cater to regular movie-goers, but we didn’t get due recognition, says national award winning directorNarasimha Nandi, whose film “Buddareddypally Breaking news’ revolving around the bonding between a farmer and his buffalo went unnoticed.

Similarly, another filmmaker R P Patnaik was reportedly disappointed since his heart-touching film ‘Manalo Okkadu’ which exposes the sensationalism of media and how an innocent is trapped in a rape case, as he shares name with the accused. “It was a very topical and heart-wrenching film and even reached the final stage of selection but lost out,” says a source, close to the unit. However, Narasimha Nandi adds “Barring Telugu, every other regional film which bagged awards were worth their salt.

Like Tamil film `Joker’, a satire on political system, Kannada film `Reservation’, a hard-hitting take on quotas, similarly Malayalam film `Maheshinte Prathikaram’ and Bengali film `Bisarajan’, all boasted of strong and topical content but Telugu films were chosen for different reasons. Award-driven filmmakers like me can’t shift to commercial cinema overnight, so awards can keep up our spirits high,” he adds.

However, another national award winning filmmaker Neelakanta says “We have to take the awards in a sporting manner and jury would have selected films on their own merits. I don’t think we should dig deep into it. I have also won some awards and lost some, so it’s just part of our work,” he concludes.

BVS Prakesh