Adoor Gopalakrishnan stirs controversy at two-day Kerala Film Policy Conclave

Thiruvananthapuram: A two-day film conclave organised by the Kerala government with the aim of bringing in a policy to curb discriminations in the film industry itself has ended up in protest against the alleged discriminatory remark of a famed filmmaker.

Speaking at the conclave that ended on Sunday, filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan said that the Rs 1.50 crore being provided by the Kerala State Film Development Corporation for film production by members of the scheduled caste, scheduled tribes and women need to be revamped as it was not delivering the expected outcome.

"Those from the SC, ST communities who come up for film production should be given three month training by experts. The fund of Rs. 1.5 crore should be distributed among three persons as Rs. 50 lakh each. They should be made aware that it was public money that was being given to them and it should be used for making quality films. Similarly women who come up for making films should also give intensive training before giving government grants," said Gopalakrishnan.

The Padma award winning filmmaker's comments triggered protest from among the audience itself accusing him of making discriminatory remarks. Known Salit and women film personalities were present on the occasion.

Dalit writer and activist Sunny Kapicadu reacted that veteran film personalities like Adoor Gopalakrishnan could be ignorant why people from marginalised sections were struggling to come to the forefront in filmmaking. Rs 50 lakh is really insufficient for film making in the present context. Gopalakrishnan should withdraw the discriminatory statement.

The statement of music director Sreekumar Thampi that there was no use of Hema committee that probed into the problems in the Malayalam film industry as women who gave complaints before the committee later backed out from the complaint when the police started probe.

The state government unveiled a draft film policy at the conclave. The policy aims at ending the alleged discriminations in the film industry.