This Article is From Oct 29, 2015

Filmmakers Returning National Awards is 'Disrespectful,' Say Film Colleagues

Filmmakers Returning National Awards is 'Disrespectful,' Say Film Colleagues

Madhur Bhandarkar said returning the award was an insult to the national honour

Mumbai: After a host of filmmakers, including Dibakar Banerjee and Anand Patwardhan, returned various government awards and honours they have received to express solidarity with FTII students, a few members of the film fraternity termed it as a 'publicity gimmick' and an 'insult'. (Also Read: Anupam Kher's Anti-'Award Wapsi Gang' Tweets Leave Twitter Fuming)

Actor Anupam Kher and filmmakers Madhur Bhandarkar and Ashoke Pandit are among those who have called the step 'disrespectful'.

Mr Bhandarkar, a National Award-winning filmmaker, said that returning an award was 'not only an insult to the honour' but to 'one's craft' as well.
 
 

Besides Dibakar Banerjee and Anand Patwardhan, the filmmakers who returned the awards on Wednesday include Paresh Kamdar, Nishtha Jain, Kirti Nakhwa, Harshavardhan Kulkarni, Hari Nair, Rakesh Sharma, Indraneel Lahiri and Lipika Singh Darai.

Mr Pandit slammed the filmmakers in a series of tweets and also extended his support to the agitating Film and Television Institute of India students in Pune.
 
 
 

Buddha In A Traffic Jam director Vivek Agnihotri criticised the move, saying that the filmmakers had 'already exploited' the honour to their advantage.
 

Anupam Kher wrote:
 
 



The move by select filmmakers happened hours after three prominent alumni of the Film and Television Institute of Indiaannounced that they would return their National Awards to protest 'an atmosphere of intolerance' in the country in the last few months.
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