Amid IFFK, open revolt in Kerala State Chalachitra Academy against chairman Ranjith

Amid IFFK, open revolt in Kerala State Chalachitra Academy against chairman Ranjith

Even as the week-long 28th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) is set to conclude here on Friday, trouble seems to be brewing within the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, the organiser of the festival, with a group of nine members of the academy’s general council demanding the State government to remove chairman Ranjith, who has been in the middle of a controversy over a series of comments he made to the press.

The nine members held a meeting on Thursday and shot off a letter to the government demanding action against Mr. Ranjith.

According to a member of the general council, who spoke to The Hindu on condition of anonymity, a majority of the council members have been finding it difficult to work with Mr. Ranjith due to his high-handed behaviour as well as his public comments, which is widely being perceived as bringing disrepute to the academy. Things came to a head on Wednesday after he responded inappropriately to a woman member of the council, said the member.

“For quite some time, Mr. Ranjith has been making statements unbecoming of his position, and bringing disrepute to the academy. Now, even when the IFFK is being organised successfully, he is making comments which question even the existence of such an organisation. According to him, cinema has no power to influence people and that only fools will think otherwise. The academy has a clear objective to make cultural interventions. However, his statements go against this very objective. The government should try to correct him, and if it is not possible, he should be removed from the post,” said the general council member.

Later, responding to media persons, Mr. Ranjith said that the general council members were free to approach the government with the proof of their claims. The Minister for Cultural Affairs will possibly seek an explanation, to which he will respond with his side of the story.

On Tuesday, filmmaker Bijukumar Damodaran, better known as Dr. Biju, resigned as a board member of the Kerala State Film Development Corporation (KSFDC). Though Dr. Biju did not reveal the reasons for his decision, the move came a day after Mr. Ranjith made some controversial remarks about Dr. Biju and his films in an interview. Mr. Ranjith had questioned Dr. Biju’s relevance when few people went to cinemas to watch his new release Adrishya Jalakangal. The film is screened in the Kaleidoscope category of the IFFK.

Dr. Biju had in his response, in a Facebook post, said that Mr. Ranjith was not qualified enough to judge his film. “The last international recognition I got was from a jury headed by Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan. You can ask someone about that filmmaker. Since he is also a director whose films don’t fill theatres, you may not know his relevance either,” he had said in the post.