Ravi Jadhav’s Marathi movie Nude was to have been the opening title of the Indian Panorama section at the International Film Festival of India that will take place in Goa from November 20-28. However, Nude and Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s Malayalam movie S Durga was dropped at the last minute by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, which funds IFFI, despite the recommendations of the selection panel. Smriti Irani’s ministry has not offered an explanation for its decision.
Nude profiles a nude model at an art school in Mumbai, while S Durga explores misogyny and sexual violence in Kerala.
Filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh, who headed the 13-member selection committee, stepped down yesterday in an apparent protest against the decision. Both Jadhav and Sasidharan have also recorded their anger, with Sasidharan threatening to file a case against the ministry. Jadhav had told Scroll.in that he was deeply upset with the ministry’s action, and that in overriding the selection committee’s nominations, Irani’s ministry seems to have gone merely by the movie’s title.
Jadhav has co-produced Nude along with Zee Studios. He plans to have the movie released in early 2018. A UA-rated trailer reveals the journey of the film’s central character: an abused wife (Kalyanee Mulay) who leaves her village with her son, goes to live with her aunt (Chhaya Kadam) in a slum in Mumbai, and finally makes her way to the classrooms of the Sir JJ School of Art in Mumbai, where she realises the truth behind her aunt’s source of income.
