65th National Film Awards: Many awardees skip as President awards only 11 winners

65th National Film Awards
indianexpress

It is 65th National Film Awards ceremony where a lot of suspense, drama, action and emotion were seen this year. Although it is a celebration for film industry, the people were quite disappointed this time. The problem rose as almost 50 of the 125 awardees refused to attend the event protesting. Know what the matter is.

Why did awardees protest to attend the event?
It was during the rehearsal for the event, awardees got to know that the President Ram Nath Kovind would give away only a select few awards i.e. 11 of the 137 awards. While Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Smriti Irani and her junior Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore would give to the rest. The awardees felt biased due to this. It was giving the sense of unimportant. Many awardees also asserted that they would not have come if had been informed before.

Signed a Letter
As many as 69 signed a letter addressed to the Ministry and also marked to the President, saying, “It feels like a breach of trust when an institution/ceremony that abides by extreme protocol fails to inform us of such a vital aspect of the ceremony with a prior notice. It seems unfortunate that 65 years of tradition are being overturned in a jiffy.”

Efforts to convince the awardees
The Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Smriti Irani Irani tried to convince the awardees and assured them that she would “convey” their “sentiments” to the President’s office. Even, Shekhar Kapur, head of the jury for feature films, spoke to them but they were unhappy.

65th National Film Awards
image credit: hindustantimes

More updates from the event
As per PTI, the award ceremony was divided into two phases. At 4 pm, Irani and Rathore handed over the awards while at 5.30 pm President Kovind gave the rest of the awards.

At the Vigyan Bhavan, where the event was held, most seats reserved for winners were empty. Some of the winners came in but for half of those who didn’t, their nameplates were removed.
It was also told by sources that I&B Ministry was already conveyed this information about three weeks ago.

Reason for not giving all awards by President
It had been decided before that the President would give major awards and not stay for more than an hour at such events. It was not possible for the President to present “30-40 awards at a time so he would only give major awards.

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