Sudipto Sen left his National Award win for his film The Kerala Story behind and gave fire and brimstone against a large recent film awards show, particularly on the honors conferred on Kiran Rao’s film Laapataa Ladies.
The director, through his social media proclamations, called the ceremony a “tamasha in the name of cinema” questioning the selective recognition dished out by these awards upon the industry.
He pointedly condemned what he called a “blatantly plagiarised film” walking away with multiple crowns, a thinly veiled rebuke to Laapataa Ladies currently being compared by netizens to the 2019 Arabic film Burqa City. Sen suggested the award show ignored the year’s best cinematic offerings, giving recognition to films he considered undeserving.
Plagiarism Controversy and Institutional Blindness
Sen’s main argument appears to settle on the question of plagiarism regarding the film Laapataa Ladies. The writer of the film, Biplab Goswami, and the director, Kiran Rao, spoke in defense of their film, stating that it was registered with the Screenwriters Association back in 2014 (originally under the title Two Brides). But Sen seems to imply that, either out of distrust in the bona fide judgment of the jury or blatant institutional blindness toward genuine originality, the jury acted inappropriately.
Sudipto posted on his Instagram a note about the Filmfare Awards: “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. Happy that this ‘wood’ community does not recognise, invite or choose us.”
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Goswami claimed that the mistaken identity premise of the veiled brides is the oldest trick in the book. The characters, setting, and social implications of their story, however, are wholly different. Sen, though, has alleged the awards body failed in its duty of care to maintain any semblance of standards against such charges and has described the industry as being governed by “the glamour and rich world of the stars” instead of cinematic art.
Sudipto Sen’s Rebuke of Bollywood Establishment
The National Award-winning director further extended his condemnation to the Bollywood establishment and all institutions and media for having “ZERO contribution towards cinema, cinema art.” Sen was quite happy in being detached from this “wood” community as it saves him from “faking smiles,” “faking camaraderie,” and indulging in “sycophancy.”
Clearly, there is a widening gap between the filmmakers outside the old power circles in the industry and the star-driven apparatus of popular awards shows. His statements reflect a sense of merit and original contribution attached to the fact that they are usually secondary to commercial and clique-based considerations within the modern Hindi film industry.
Sudipto Sen and Vipul Shah reminisce about the National Award for their film “The Kerala Story” is a video stream that winds up recently crowned director for his previous work.
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