2 from state return National Film Awards

BHUBANESWAR: An award-winning filmmaker and a cinematographer from Odisha, along with eight others from across the country, on Wednesday returned their National Film Awards, expressing solidarity with the students of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). The duo are Lipika Singh Darai and Indraneel Lahiri.
"We stand alongside the writers who have returned the country's highest literary honour and hereby return our national awards.We stand firmly with the students of FTII and are determined to not let them shoulder the entire burden of their protests. They have mounted a historic struggle and we urge others of our fraternity to carry this protest forward," said the filmmakers in a joint press statement. Darai, who has bagged three national awards, said, "Receiving three national awards in the early stage of my filmmaking career was a big boost for me. With all the respect to the jury who nominated my work, I raise my voice of protest in solidarity with the FTII students and Sahitya Akademi winners. The current government cannot silence our freedom of expression, disrespect us in all aspects and at the same time honour our work of expression with medals and lines of praise," said Darai. Cinematographer Lahiri, who got a national award for his film 'Aamar Katha, Story of Binodini' in 2014 said: "The protests that are happening all over the country have fallen on deaf ears."