At the 53rd International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid criticised Vivek Agnihotri’s divisive film ‘The Kashmir Files’ “vulgar and propaganda driven” during the closing ceremony on Monday. And now the jury board has distance💎d itself from its chief’s comments, terming them “his personal opinion”.
Filmmaker Sudipto Sen, Nadav Lapid’s fellow juror who served on the jury of the just-concluded International Film Festival of India (IFFI), has now tweeted the board’s statement, saying the opinion of Nadav Lapid on 'The Kashmir Files' was ent🌠irely his own and not shared by his colleagues on the jury. Clarifying his position, Sen tweeted, "Whatever has been said by IFFI 2022 Jury Chairman Mr Nadav Lapid about the film 'The Kashm🌠ir Files' from the stage of the closing ceremony of 53rd IFFI was completely his personal opinion."
He went on to say, "In the official presentation of the Jury Board to the F🎃estival Director and in the official Press Conference, where we four jury members (the fifth had to leave for a personal emergency) were present and interacted with the press, we never 𝔍mentioned anything about our likes or dislikes. Both were our official collective opinion."
Sen concluded by noting, "As jurಌors, we are assigned to judge the technical, aesthetic quality and socio-cultural relevance of a film. We don't indulge in any kind of political comments on any film and if it is done, it is completely in a personal capacity -- nothing to do wi🤡th the esteemed Jury Board."
In his speech, Lapid had said, “We were, all of us, disturbed and shocked by the 15th film, ‘The Kashmir Files’. That felt to us like a propaganda, vulg🌞ar movie, inappropriate for an artistic competitive section of such a prestigious film festival…”
On Tuesday, the Ambassador of Israel to India, Naor 🃏Gilon, slammed Lapid for his comments and tweeted, “In Indian culture, they say a guest is like God… I’m no film expert but I do know that it’s insensitive and pꦿresumptuous to speak about historic events before deeply studying them, and which are an open wound in India because many of the involved are still around and paying the price.”
‘The Kashmir Fi𝔉les’ actors Anupam Kher and Ranvir Shorey have criticised Lapid’s comments🃏 on the film as well.
