They said they were “disheartened” on being informed at the last minute that the President will present only 11 awards

In an unprecedented incident, close to 55 film-makers stayed away from the 65th National Film Awards function, protesting against ‘selective treatment’. This year, in a departure from the established practice, President Ram Nath Kovind did not give awards to each recipient.

He gave away 11 of the 137 awards, while the remaining were presented by Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani and Minister of State Rajyavardhan Rathore. The film-makers were informed about this change only during the dress rehearsal on Wednesday.

Ms. Irani spent nearly 45 minutes during the dress rehearsal placating the agitated awardees, explaining to them the new protocol established by Mr. Kovind.

The President’s Office said all the Ministries and departments had been informed that the President would spare only an hour for convocations and award ceremonies. The same was conveyed to the I&B Ministry nearly three weeks ago.

The angry awardees shot off a letter to the Directorate of Film Festivals, saying that it was a “breach of trust” as 65 years of tradition was being overturned in a jiffy. “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 without a prior notice,” the letter said.

The filmmakers also questioned on how the 11-awards were picked. So while the President gave away award for Best Male Playback singer to K J Yesudas. The award in the same category for Female singer that went to Shashaa Tirupati was accorded by the two ministers.

The ceremony was conducted in two phases. In the first phase Ms Irani and Mr Rathore gave away the awards. And the second was given away by President Ram Nath Kovind.

In the first phase, in a rushed ceremony there were no welcome speeches and names of more than 30 protesting filmmakers were not announced. This includes Malayalam Actor Fahad Faasil who won the Best Supporting Actor award for his film Thondimuthalum Driksaksiyum and Malayalam Actress Parvarthy, who won Special Mention for her film Take Off who also stayed away.

The awardees who were present at Vigyan Bhawan said that importance of the award does not reduce by who is giving the award. “Awards can’t be completely meaningless just because it is not being given by President. I do accept the awardees argument that they were informed only last minute. But one has to remember five-years down the line, people will only remember who got the National award not who conferred it,” Best Actor award winner Riddhi Sen said.

Speaking in similar vein actress Divya Dutta, who bagged the Best supporting Actress award said, “It’s a national award, you can’t take that away from it. My only problem is if the awards are being given by union ministers then all should be given by union ministers, why leave out a few.. they are all national awardees. But having said that I would say it is a moment that we shouldn’t dilute it is after all national award,” Divya Dutta, who bagged Best Supporting Actress.

Many others however differed from this view. Director Utpal Borpujari, whose film Ishu won the Best Assamese film said that the honour of the award lies in the fact that the first citizen of India, who is above politics gives the award. “The invitation that we got and even the advertisement published in today’s newspaper says that awards will be handed out by the President. In 65 years, only one occasion did the President not give away the awards, this was when Pratibha Patil was President. Since she was unwell then Vice President Hamid Ansari stepped in,” he said.