New Delhi: BAFTA winner and Oscar nominated film producer Jinko Gotoh, who was also a member of the jury at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), has made another remark about 'The Kashmir Files' keeping the film in unending controversy. As per a statement she shared via her official Twitter account, her fellow jurors Pascale Chavance and Javier Angulo Barturen and Gotoh herself stand by the statement Nadav Lapid had made about the film at its closing ceremony.
At the closing ceremony of IFFI 2022 on Monday, Nadav Lapid had called the Vivek Agnihotri film 'vulgar' and 'propaganda' which did not deserve to be at the film festival.
The present joint statement which Goto shared read, "At the festival’s closing ceremony, Nadav Lapid, the jury’s president, made a statement on behalf of the jury members stating: We were all of disturbed and shocked by the 15ths film, The Kashmir Files, that felt to us like a vulgar propaganda movie, inappropriate for an artistic competitive section of such a prestigious film festival. We stand by his statement.”
"To clarify, we were not taking a political stance on the film’s content, we were making an artistic statement, and it saddens us greatly to see the festival platform being used for politics and subsequent personal attacks on Nadav. That was never the intention of the jury," it added.
The current statement comes at a time when many have speculated that Lapid's comments were personal opinions and did not present the views of the entire jury which was present.
In an interview of filmmaker Sudipto Sen ( who is not an official signatory to the statement Gotoh shared on social media) with The Indian Express, said, "Nadav went to speak on the stage of the IFFI’s closing ceremony as the jury chairman of the International Competition. However, the statements he made there were done in his personal capacity. Whatever we had to say as part of the Jury Board about the films in competition, we said in the official presentation made to the festival director and other officials on November 27 and later at a press conference.”
Sen happened to be the only Indian on the International Competition jury of IFFI. When Sen was again asked about Gotoh' statement by The Indian Express, he said: "I shall not change my statement, whatever I said to you and in other platform. My comments will remain same… It is true, that the said film was rejected in artistic ground. But, I objected his (Lapid) statement – which was not “artistic”. “Vulgar” or “Propaganda” is not any “artistic” statement.”
Released on March 11 this year, “The Kashmir Files”, directed by Vivek Agnihotri, was a major box office hit in India.