International Film Festival in Chennai gets controversial

The film festival in the city is mired in controversy just as it kicks off
While a film festival is an occasion for celebration of cinema, this year, the international film festival in Chennai has been a hot bed of controversies. First, it was the issue of award-winning Tamils films like Thenmerku Paruvakkatru, Aaranya Kaandam and Sengadal, not being screened in the competition section.
Director Ameer sent out a press release on behalf of the directors’ union protesting against the Indo-Cine Appreciation Foundation (ICAF), which organizes the yearly event. Ameer, in his statement, says that films like Thenmerku Paruvakkatru and Sengadal were intentionally ignored, and claims that the organization has misused the names of Bharathiraja and himself in their appeal to the Tamil Nadu government for financial aid.
Talking about the issue, director S P Jananathan, the treasurer of the directors’ union, says, “We want to protest the fact that they have used the names of two of our office bearers without consulting with them. They can organize a film festival by all means, but when they are using the names of our office bearers on their letterpad to get a grant of Rs 25 lakh from the state government, we feel we should have been consulted with. Being Tamil film directors, we would have at least guided them on the selection of Tamil films. We will be convening a meeting of our union members to decide on the course of action.”
Meanwhile, E Thangaraj, festival director and general secretary of the ICAF, claims that he had informed Bharathiraja and Ameer about the inclusion of their names as members of the advisory committee. “I personally went to Bharathiraja’s office and requested the support of the directors’ union for the event. I even placed a request for financial help and at that time, he agreed to give his approval for the event. We sent a letter to Ameer informing that we are carrying their names in our appeal to the government. If they had objections, they could have informed us then. I don’t know why there’s a sudden change in their stance,” he says.
Talking about the selection of Tamil films, which has also been a bone of contention, he explains, “For the Tamil films in the competition section, we placed a call for entries. We received 16 entries and our committee selected the current films. In the case of Sengadal, it’s a documentary-cum-feature film, while the section is only for feature films. As for Thenmerku Paruvakkatru, they did not apply before the deadline and by the time they wanted to be included, we had finalized our schedules.”
While the directors’ union and the film festival organizers are involved in a tussle, the cinephiles of the city are looking forward to catching some of the best of cinema over the next few days.