Thiruvananthapuram: Protest at IFFK headquarters for third consecutive day. Following the protest, the police filed a lawsuit against the students. Accused Niharika says the police beat the students and Naveen Kishore who is in custody spat up blood. A lawsuit was filed against Niharika and Nivin Kishore under sections 143, 147 and 149 of the IPC. And a lawsuit has been filed against about thirty other people.
IFFK officials had initially said they would not take the case. But now the case has been closed for the crime of attempted riot and repression of illegal assembly. After that there has been no response from IFFK till now.
But Niharika says she didn’t think a case of attempted riot would be dismissed when she protested by shouting slogans and saying the police are back unable to watch the film.
They are keeping silent on this serious issue which should be addressed by the IFFK authorities.
The fact is that there are more than 14,000 delegates who paid Rs 1,000 and got a pass, but there are only about 8,000 seats, including Nishagandhi, which seats 2,500. There is a lot of criticism against the IFFK authorities for granting the pass without checking and failing to provide the conditions.
It is also alleged that the state film authorities are deceiving movie lovers by arranging a 100% booking even after taking a pass for such a large amount.
Not only that
Experts also point out that there are many technical errors in booking through C DIT.
Delegates accused state film authorities of downgrading the film festival, which is attracting international attention, to mere mercantile culture and authoritarianism in violation of democratic norms, putting financial profit on the agenda.
Delegates called for reservations for the elderly and infirm to be raised to 50 per cent.
Delegates who queued for hours could not watch Mammootty’s film ‘Nan Pagal Nereth Mayakam’ directed by Liju Jose Pellissery even on the third day today. Today was the last screening of the film which could not be released in theatres.
