National award-winning filmmaker Dr Biju has decided not to send his films to the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), apparently peeved over the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy “ignoring” his movies continuously. Dr Biju, who has three national awards against his name, withdrew his film ‘Veetilekulla Vazhi’, after it made it into the competition category of the film festival being held as part of Keraleeyam, a week-long celebration of the State’s achievements.
His latest venture ‘Adrishya Jalakangal, starring Tovino Thomas and Nimisha Sajayan, was not selected for the ‘Malayalam Cinema Today’ category of the film festival. Dr Biju, who debuted in films as a writer and director with Saira in 2005, informed that his films won’t be competing for the state awards for ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Screenplay’ from now onwards and that they will be submitted only for other awards.
He rued that his films are being constantly disregarded for the Malayalam Cinema category at the IFFK, but the same ones will be screened in the ‘Kaleidoscope’ category upon them being featured in film festivals abroad. “I won’t give my films to any of the IFFK categories, including Kaleidoscope, from this year onwards. The decision is painful since it’s through the IFFK that I watched the world movies and grew as a filmmaker. I’m also not interested in screening my films at other events of the Chalachitra Academy,” Dr Biju said.
The filmmaker said he had informed the Chalachitra Academy Secretary to not screen ‘Veetilekulla Vazhi’, which was picked for the ‘Classic’ category section of the film festival. Also, he would apply for state film awards only with the declaration, not to consider him for individual awards like Best Director and Best Screenplay. His films, though, will be submitted for awards since he didn’t want to deny the opportunities of technical workers associated with the film. Dr Biju pointed out that he was forced to make the hard decision to safeguard his self-respect.
