No deliberate attempt on Academy's part to seat women behind men at Award show, clarifies Cuckoo

Kerala Chalachitra Academy vice-chairperson Cuckoo Parameswaran said that there was no deliberate attempt by the film body to seat women behind male attendees at the Kerala State Film Awards ceremony. She was responding to the allegations by actor Ahaana Krishna, who highlighted the lack of female artists in the front row.
Speaking to Onmanorama, Cuckoo, who was seated on the stage along with Divya S Iyer, District Panchayat President V Priyadarshini and J C Daniel Awardee Sarada, acknowledged there were specific seating arrangements for the award-winning artists and the ministers who arrived for the ceremony.

She, however, stated that the reel shared by Ahaana was quite biased, as it did not highlight Best Actress award winner Shamla Hamza, who was seated in the front row beside Best Director P Chidambaram.
“I think the reel and the questions (based on it) are aimed at shedding bad light on the state award ceremony, which had also given its due to women artists. Veteran actor Sarada arrived in a wheelchair and was supposed to be seated in the front row. However, she preferred to wait in the green room and arrive on stage when her name was announced due to her physical condition. There was no deliberate attempt from our side to seat women behind men,” she said.

She also pointed out that as ministers and other artists moved to take their seats on the stage, the remaining artists began to occupy the vacant spots closer to the front row.
Though Onmanorama tried to reach Kerala Chalachitra Academy chairperson Resul Pookutty regarding this, he did not respond. However, a former state award-winning actor who did not wish to be named said that traditionally, Best Actor award winners are given prime seats in the front row. “Till recently, Special Mention awardees were typically seated in the back row. The latest ceremony was the first time actors receiving a Special Mention (Asif Ali and Tovino Thomas) were given front-row seats. Given that shift, it would have been reasonable to place Jyothirmayi, who also received special mention for her work in ‘Bougainvillaea’, in the front as well," the person said.