Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies swept the Filmfare Awards held last weekend in Gujarat with 13 wins, including Best Film. The Best Actor award was shared by Abhishek Bachchan (I Want To Talk) and Kartik Aaryan (Chandu Champion) while Alia Bhatt won Best Actress for Jigra (2023) and Lakshya won Best Debut Male for Kill (2023). Now, The Kerala Story (2023) director Sudipto Sen has slammed the awards calling it “fake” and a “tamasha (fuss)” in the name of cinema.
Taking to his Instagram account, Sudipto shared a note on Filmfare Awards, which read, “This year Filmfare truly is an expose of Indian ‘nouvelle vague’… A blatantly plagiarised film… a film which is a tutorial of brutality and a film which did not survive the box office for more than 72 hours took away most of the crowns. As expected the best work of 2024 remain elusive. Realised, why Filmfare was so vocal against The Kerala Story receiving National Awards. I am happy that this ‘wood’ community does not recognise, invite or choose us.”
Although Sudipto didn’t name the films, “plagiarised” probably refers to Laapataa Ladies, as earlier reports had surfaced that the film is plagiarised from a 2019 Arabic short film Burqa City; “tutorial of brutality” might be Kill and a film “which did not survive the box office for more than 72 hours” might be Shoojit Sircar’s I Want To Talk as it wasn’t received well at the box office.
He added, “We are spared from faking smiles, faking comradier, and most importantly, not indulging in any sycophancy. In the end- I am happy that we are saved from hobnobbing with this tamasha in the name of cinema in Mumbai and clicking selfies in Cannes. Atleast we are saved from these ugly hypocrisies and fake tapestry in the name of cinema.”
In the caption, Sudipto wrote: "I never expect anything great from any Indian cinema establishment, particularly when it is media or cinema journalism. Mostly enamored by the glamor and rich-world of the stars, exactly the way people from villages and small cities gather in front of Mr. Bachchan or SRK' house. They actually have ZERO contribution towards cinema, cinema art, the way world media does for world cinemas."
Last month, Sudipto was awarded the National Award for Best Director for The Kerala Story, and the film also won the award for Best Cinematography. The film tells the story of a group of women from Kerala who were forced to convert to Islam and join ISIS. It wasn’t favourably received by the critics but performed well at the box office with a domestic collection of Rs 241 crore.