Kerala film awards: Top director reiterates his demand for chairman Ranjith to quit

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 28 (IANS) The spat between two top film personalities in Kerala - director Vinayan and director turned actor and also producer Ranjith, presently the chairman of the Kerala State Chalachithra Academy, took a fresh turn on Monday when the former asked the CPI-M government not to include the latter in the film awards distribution ceremony and also in the upcoming edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala.

Vinayan again asked Ranjith to step down as the chairman of the Academy which has run into trouble after the former accused the latter of interfering when it came to selection of the winners of the Kerala state film awards which were announced last month.

As soon as the awards was announced Vinayan, a known CPI activist, threatened to move the court if the Pinarayi Vijayan government "fails" to intervene in the matter, alleging that Ranjith had " influenced" the film award jury’s decision-making regarding his film 'Pathonpatham Noottandu'.

Controversy erupted when Vinayan in a post on Facebook claimed that a senior member of the award jury had even informed the cultural affairs minister’s office regarding the academy chairman’s alleged attempts to influence the jury.

Vinayan in another post came out with a voice clip of a jury member saying that Ranjith did not deserve to continue in the post.

But on Monday Vinayan through his fresh Facebook statement said he has got support from eminent film maker and the first chairman of the Academy Shaji N.Karun who appreciated his efforts in bringing out this controversy because he said that if the chairman has intervened then it’s not good.

In his Facebook post Vinayan goes on to add that a tamasha is being enacted as a ‘dummy’ complaint on the award selection process was filed in the Kerala High Court and it was done with no evidence. It is a well scripted drama as the court for want of evidence will dismiss the petition and thereby the entire process gets approved by the court.

Film director M.J.Lijesh had first approached the single bench of the High Court and his petition was dismissed and then he approached the division bench which also dismissed it and on Monday his petition met a similar fate in the Supreme Court.

On expected lines, the apex court dismissed it for want of evidence to buttress his complaint that the selection of awards was not transparent.