National Awards controversy: Awardees demand they be honoured by the President

A sudden controversy on the eve of the 65^th National Film Awards has cast a long shadow on the ceremony. It was during the rehearsals at Vigyan Bhavan on Wednesday evening that the awardees learnt that only a select few awards would be handed over by President Ram Nath Kovind. The last-minute intimation did not go down well with many film personalities, including recipients from Bengal, who eventually signed a petition that read they will receive the awards only, and only from the President.
According to convention, all the National Awards, as well as the Dadasaheb Phalke, are conferred on the awardees by the President himself.Among the 65-odd people who signed the petition are director Kaushik Ganguly and producer Sani Ghose Ray of Nagarkirtan that picked up four awards this year — Best Actor, Special Jury Award, Best Makeup Artist, Best Costume — and Atanu Ghose, whose Mayurakshi has been adjudged the Best Bengali Film.

The protests prompted I&B minister Smriti Irani to reason with the filmmakers that the instructions had come from the President’s office and that the ministry didn’t take a call in this regard, but it was not enough to pacify the awardees. The petition read: “The National Film Awards unlike other Award ceremony has been considered as the most pristine and unbiased. We request that the dignity and eminence of this award is maintained and that there is no display of hierarchy at the event. We are disappointed to know that the Hon’ble President will be presenting the Award to just 11 awardees and not the remaining of about 120 of us. (sic)”

Said Atanu, “We see it as a breach of trust. Even the invitation and newspaper ads mentioned that the awards would be given away by the President and now, this is far from acceptable. In so many years, such a thing has never happened and we feel humiliated. Also, everyone waits for this award and for us it’s not just a matter of pride to accept the award from the President, but also an opportunity of a lifetime.”

Kaushik pointed out that in absence of the President, they expect the vice-president to do the honours. “On one occasion when President Pratibha Patil was unwell, vice-president Mohammad Hamid Ansari handed over the awards. But otherwise, such a gesture is unacceptable. We do not want any cabinet minister to give away the awards as that inevitably adds a political colour to the ceremony, whereas the National Awards are apolitical,” he said.
The filmmaker was disheartened when they were told that a special photo-op would be arranged with the President. “We do not want to save a picture for posterity. We are here because we deserve it. National Awards are recognition of good work in the film industry. I feel bad for those who have brought their old parents with them or have travelled from remote parts of the country. We came to Delhi with a lot of expectations,” Kaushik said.
The Nagarkirtan team, however, kept Riddhi Sen, the 19-year-old winner of the Best Actor award out of the protests and Kaushik reasoned, “He was supposed to receive the award from the President and that’s why we didn’t include him in the protests.” The Bengal brigade, which spent the day at the hotel, was expecting a communication from the Rashtrapati Bhavan. There was none till the time of going to press.