The Central government denied permission for three short films, which dealt with PhD scholar Rohith Vemula, Kashmir and JNU protests, to be showcased at a Kerala film festival, organisers said.

The refusal to grant permission was decried by acclaimed Kerala filmmaker and festival director Kamal who said there is a "cultural emergency" prevailing in the country.

The three films denied permission to be screened include 'The Unbearable Being of Lightness', a 45-minute documentary on Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula, whose suicide sparked pan-India protests, 'March March March', a 19-minute short on the 2016 campus protests at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, and 'In The Shade of Fallen Chinar', a 16-minute film on the lives of a group of young Kashmiri artists who are university students.

The films were set to be showcased at the five-day 10th International Documentary Short Film Festival, which will be inaugurated by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on June 16 in Thiruvananthapuram.

According to the Kamal, who is also the chairman of the Kerala Chalachitra Academy, films shown at film festivals do not always need a certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification. Film submissions that do not have a censor certificate can be screened if the Information and Broadcasting Ministry gives an exemption.

"What we do as organisers is, then we apply for an exemption to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry for all those films that do not have a censor certificate. In all, at the five-day festival which is starting on June 16, there are 210 films, of which around 170 films did not have the censor certificate," Kamal told news agency IANS.

The 170 films without a censor certificate included the three on Rohith Vemula, JNU protests and Kashmir. "We were surprised that all but these three films got the exemption," Kamal said.

"Now the only way out is for the director or the producer to approach the legal system," added Kamal.

'CULTURAL EMERGENCY'

"This is some sort of a cultural emergency that is now prevailing in the country and we are facing it here," Kamal told IANS, decrying how the three films were denied permissions.

News agency PTI further reported that he said, "We are going through an undeclared emergency in the country. What we should eat, what we should wear, what we should talk all this is being decided by the ruling dispensation."

He said he has been told this was the first time in the International Documentary Short Film Festival's history that the I&B Ministry denied permission for films.

(With agency inputs)

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