The 53rd National Film Awards ran into a controversy because a jury member from Kolkata objected to the selection of certain films. The awards are being presented by the President on September 14, after the court gave its green signal some time ago. Well-known film-maker, actor, director Katte Ramachandra who was one of the jury members, in this candid interview to Deccan Herald’s N Niranjan Nikam, unravels what happened at the award selection and who was to be blamed for the mess. He also speaks about the need for a proper jury selection and the role played by the chairperson of the jury Saroja Devi.

Deccan Herald: How transparent is the national film awards, especially with the 53rd awards being embroiled in controversy after one of your jury members (Shyamali Deb Banerjee) objected to the selection of the film award categories?

Katte Ramachandra: My own experience for the first time as a jury was, it looked like there was no lobby, except for one. If there was any undercurrent, we can’t make it out. The Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF) including the director and deputy director never interfered in any of the matter. They were such a wonderfully trained set of people. Till the last day of the announcement, they never came to us even once.

However, I have to very categorically state here that as far as Kolkata is concerned there was a strong lobby from day one. I am referring in particular to Shyamali Deb Bannerjee. She is a highly controversial person. She is not a film-maker, she just teaches in some film school. How could she have been made the jury? She was the jury in the team where P Viswanath from Karnataka also was there.

DH: How many jury members are there?
KR: In all, there are 11 members plus the chairperson. There are four committees. In my committee, Seema Biswas of the Bandit Queen fame and Shyam Sundar from Kerala were there. Shyamali was forcing all the jury to accept her judgement. I was forced to tell her at one point that Karnataka was in the top when it came to film-making and literature. I even walked out of a meeting fed up with her constant bickering.

DH: Is the selection a long drawn process? Do you watch all the films?

KR: The jury members watch all the films. They are all cent per cent committed. Three juries watch up to four films a day. Each committee will watch 40-50 films in 16-18 days.

DH: Is lobbying done for the awards as Aamir Khan, one of the well-known actors firmly says that he does not attend the award functions because of this?

KR: As I told you earlier, to my knowledge it is not there. I can vouch that at least in the 53rd awards it was not done. Let me give you an example. Amitabh Bachchan, Mohan Lal, Nazeeruddin Shah were all competitors for the best actor award. Amitabh won it. He is a super star, he is aged but still acting. The decision of the jury was unanimous and including Saroja Devi, the chairperson, approved. Amitabh never lobbied. If he wanted he could have done it with his massive clout.

DH: Our own B Saroja Devi was the chairperson of the jury. How effective was she as the chairperson as there were allegations that two officials of the DFF had imposed the names of the awardees on the jury board chair?

KR: The charges against her is totally false. Saroja Devi has acted in a lot of films including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and of course Kannada. She has ruled the film industry for nearly three decades. She will definitely have a sense of judgement. As a chairperson she managed the whole thing in a wonderful manner. But I must tell that some of the jury members had a complex about her. But she is a wonderful lady. Even the then President Abdul Kalam had invited her for dinner and appreciated her film ‘Palam Palamam.’ All the MPs like Dharmendra, Shatrugan Sinha, appreciated her and Sharmila Tagore hugged her and I was a witness to all of these. Hence she deserved to be the chairperson and we should all be proud as Kannadigas for this honour.


DH: You yourself have been a state and a national awardee. Now as a jury member what difference do you find?

KR: When I got the invitation from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, I felt proud. Definitely it is an honour. I have been in the film industry for the last 27 years. I have been acting and directing plays. In my very first directorial venture I won the State and National award (Arivu).  I had not lobbied then. It was shocking that I got it in the first place. However, I still have a pain. Even today, the award I won does not get a mention in the Film Gazetteer. It has been left out deliberately and the government has not done anything so far about it.

DH: Now that the awards are announced and you are attending the function on September 14, what is your feeling?

KR: Again I must reiterate that the whole controversy was bogus and biased. Shyamali refused to sign till the end. All the other jury including the chairperson signed for the list of awards. And at last she also signed but later went to the court.

But all the film categories we had selected withstood the test. As a Kannadiga I feel happy that films like Thayi and Tutturi bagged awards. I feel that when they nominate jury members, they should be very careful in selecting them so that such controversies are avoided.