Filmmaker Ashoke Pandit says returning awards is the the most 'intolerant act'

Filmmaker Ashoke Pandit on 28 October condemned the filmmakers for returning their awards in protest against the FTII row and described it as a most 'intolerant act'.

"Returning the awards is the most intolerant act. There cannot be any other act more intolerant than this. You are insulting the emotions of all those people who thought that you have done good work," Pandit told ANI here.

He further said filmmakers returning their awards are the ones who signed a memorandum against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

"I was surprised by this act of so called film makers. These are the same people who had signed a memorandum before the Lok Sabha elections, that they don't want to see Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister. Madhur Bhandarkar, Anupam Kher, we had all opposed it. They are Communists and the followers of the Congress and they have always bread on fundings of the Congress and Communist parties," Pandit said.

"It came as a shock to them when Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister. Now, their entire funding has stopped, their foreign trips have stopped, they are getting frustrated day by day and trying to create and atmosphere of unrest in the country," he added.

Ten former students of the Film and Television Institute (FTII) have returned their national awards in support of the present FTII students.

Film directors Dibakar Banerjee, Paresh Kamdar, Lipika Singh, Nishtha Jain, Anand Patwardhan, Kirti Nakhwa, Harshvardhan Kulkarni, Hari Nair, Indrani Lahiri and Rakesh Sharma have returned their awards in protest of the FTII issue and also against the killing of rationalists and writers like Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and M.M.Kalburgi.

The students who were protesting for the last 139 days demanding the removal of Gajendra Chauhan as its chairman called off their protest today, but vowed to continue it at various levels.

The students have been opposing the appointment of Chauhan and four others to the governing council of FTII, branding them propagandists for the BJP government.

-ANI