Kamal KM, a delegate at the ongoing 48th International Film Festival of India in Goa, was ridiculed by the ESG chairperson Rajendra Talak today and asked to return to his home state of Kerala. Kamal has lodged a complaint with the festival chairperson.
According to the complaint submitted by the filmmaker to the chairman, the incident occurred around 12.30 pm outside the Kala Academy Hall. Kamal and other delegates had been waiting for close to half an hour for the screening of The Guilty to begin. When they found out that the screening was getting delayed, they raised the issue with the authorities upon which Rajendra Talak, the vice chairman of the ESG (Entertainment Society of Go) – the nodal agency that organises IFFI – accused the delegates of turning up late at the venue. According to Kamal, Talak made an unconstitutional statement that went, “I know you are from Kerala. You should go back home.”
According to a witness, Talak claimed that he was the boss there, “lied through his teeth and ridiculed the delegates in general and Malayalis in particular.”
Massive protest at Kala Academy when "The Guilty" screening started with most of the people with reservation standing…
Posted by Prasanth Vijay on Wednesday, November 21, 2018
The filmmaker in his complaint has said that he felt ‘extremely humiliated’ and offended by the comment. He requested the festival chairperson to take necessary action and demanded a public apology from Talak.
Kamal is the director of the feature film ID which premiered at the Busan International Film Festival and was screened in the Indian Panorama section of the IFFI in 2012. The film featured Geethanjali Thapa and Murari Kumar in the lead roles and was about the protagonist’s search for the identity of a man who arrives to paint a wall in her house. Apart from the Busan festival, the film was also selected for screening at 10 other festivals.
Kamal is also a founding partner of the production house Collective Phase One which produced the Malayalam movie Kammattipadam.