National
Awards (Regional Films) – The Force of 1+ 6!
Do the regional films selected for a National award truly reflect
the consensus of the Indian film technicians and the viewers or is it a mere
farcical exercise conducted year after year by the Government of India? Can a regional
film by selected by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry aided by a 6 member jury be conferred with the National Award? Is this the biggest scam
meted out by the government of India to the thousands of regional film makers and
hundreds and thousands of passionate Indian cinema viewers spread all over the
world? Let me highlight below a few points to explain my position on this
issue:- 1. the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting is the sole body involved in the selection process
for national film awards. 2. In the first place how are they qualified to
select the jury? 3.What is the basis on which one is selected to serve as a
jury member? 4.What about the conflict of interest involved for example can a
person serving as a jury member have worked with the
producer/director/actor/technician of the film selected for an award under any
category? None of the above posed questions have satisfactory answers. This
truly reflects the apathy & nepotism behind the procedures being followed
by the I&B ministry in selecting films for the nation’s highest honor. It
also reflects poorly on our media who have not taken up cudgels strongly enough
to pressurize the ministry to take immediate steps to make the selection
process broad based and transparent.
A few suggestions I can think of:- To start with the
I&B ministry should definitely involve the thousands of film
technicians/distributors/theater owners/film critics and above all the Indian
viewers in the selection process. This will be the first step in restoring
credibility to the present system adapted for the selection of films by the
ministry for awarding National Awards. The jury selection should be transparent.
The members selected to serve as jury members should be screened and selected from all the recognized
associations of the film industry along with a few from the general cinema
viewers from various professions and critics too. The selected films should be
screened to all the jury members and they should be asked to vote their
selection by secret ballot before the final list of films is compiled.
Bottom Line: - 1970 TO 2013 (44 years) the national award
for regional films was conferred to Tamil films 41 times (3 years no awards
were given). 17 times it was awarded to
films directed by the same director. Hardly 4 to 5 films were high grosser's or
commercial hits. 1 ministry and 6 jury members have the honor of picking 1
winner out of over 250 films produced each year grossing revenue of well over 7.7 billion INR (1990 figures*)
Tamil film industry. WOW! UNBELIEVABLE but TRUE!
* If anyone knows the latest figures please send me the
details.
NATIONAL AWARDS
The
Directorate of Film Festivals invites nominations for the awards sometime in
January. Feature and Non-Feature
Films certified by Central Board of Film
Certification are eligible for the film awards. For the Feature and
Non-Feature Films sections, films in any Indian language, shot on 16 mm/35 mm formats, a wider film
gauge or a digital format, and released in cinemas, on
video or digital formats for home viewing are eligible. Films are required to
be certified as a feature film, a featurette or a
Documentary/Newsreel/Non-Fiction by the Central Board of Film Certification.
For the Feature Film
section, six committees are formed based on the different geographic regions in
India. The two-tier evaluation process included a central committee and five
regional committees. The central committee is headed by one eminent personality
from the film industry. It also comprises of the heads of each regional
committee and five other jury members. At regional level, each committee
consists of one chief and four members. The chief and one non-chief member of
each regional committee are selected from outside that geographic region.
Broad set of the rules:-
1.
The Film Federation of India shall
have the right to nominate films for the award for best popular film providing
wholesome entertainment.
2.
Regional Juries – One Panel for each
language.
3.
Each regional jury is headed by a
chairperson and one member (both of whom are selected from outside the region)
& three other members from within the region.
4.
Each regional jury will recommend
30% (approx) of the films.
5.
Regional jury has the power to
recommend the awards for which a particular film should be considered.
6.
It is mandatory for the jury to
view each film in its entirety before arriving at a decision.
7.
Regional Juries would preview
films in Delhi.
I have also listed below a list of Tamil films (2009
-2013) which will highlight some of the contradictions in the film selection. I
have also followed it by a brief on the selection criteria adapted by the
Oscars & Cannes film awards committee as reference points:-
2009 National Award: - Pasanga –Pandiraj
Classified as high Grosser’s:- Top 3
Aayan/Naadodigal/Padikathavan Highest Grosser’s in UK/Malta-Villu
/Kanthaswamy/Aadhavan- Malaysia – Aadhavan/Vettaikaran/Kanthaswamy –
2010 National
Award:- Thenmerku Paruvakaatru -Seenu Ramasamy
Classified as high Grosser’s :-
Enthiran/Singam/Raavanan/Boss Engira Bhaskaran/Vinnathandi Varuvaayaa - UK Box
off – Enthiran/Singam/Raavanan
2011 National Award:- Vaagai Sooda Vaa- A Sarkunam
Classified as high Grosser’s-
Mankatha/Kanchana/Siruthai/Ko/Aadukalam
2012 National Award:- Vazakku Enn 18/9 -Balji
Sakthivel
Classified as High Grosser’s:-Naan Ee/Billa II
/Kumki/Thuppakki/Pizza
2013 National Award: - Thanga Meengal –Ram
Classified as Hits – Ethir Neechal/Theeya Velai
Seiyyanum Kumaru/Soodhu Kavvum-Classified as high grosser’s:-Singam
II/Arrambam/Thalaivaa Highest Grossers in UK/Malta-Vishwaroopam/Thalaivaa
/Aarambam- Malaysia – Singam II/Aarambam/Thalaiva
The OSCAR
“RACE”
The Nominations to the Oscars starts around November. Film
distributors/Studios/Publicists try hard to get the academy’s 6000-odd members
of to view their respective films by sending DVD’s and free cinema screenings.
The Academy’s members are split into 15 ‘branches’, or
professions within the film industry - from actors to makeup artists. These
members vote for nominees within their own category, directors for directors,
cinematographers for cinematographers. Nominees for the Animated Feature Film
and Foreign Language Film categories, however, are voted for by committees of
mixed branches. Every member is allowed to vote for the Best Picture nominee.
Votes are sent to Price water house & Coopers to be
counted and verified securely, and then the nominees who come out on top are
announced a few days later in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
Downside:-The
process has mainly been criticized by some of the film industry for the
ruthless campaigning that takes place from November.
CANNES
Each year, more
than 300 members of the creative communications industries are invited to
Cannes Lions to serve on the juries. They consider and award all the work that
is entered into the Festival. To make sure that each piece of work is evaluated
in an independent manner, the Festival follows a rigorous jury selection
procedure. The Festival’s global network of representatives is the first step in this process. These
local representatives send in their nominations for each jury place from their
country. How many jury places a country gets is determined by the success
of that country in winning Lions in the previous years, cross-referenced
against the number of entries made by that country. All judges must be
award-winning and representative of countries that are entering Cannes Lions.
Once these nominations
are all in, Cannes Lions selects the judges, ensuring that each jury contains
an even balance of members from around the world, from each gender and from a
representative spread of agencies – independents and from networks.
Please respond with your thoughts on this subject. It
will help.
Until next
time,
hC
23/04/2014
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