Filmmaker Sudipto Sen, who served on the jury of the just-concluded International Film Festival of India (IFFI), took to Twitter to state that the opinion of Israeli screenwriter and director Nadav Lapid on The Kashmir Files was entirely his own and not shared by his colleagues on the jury.
Clarifying his position, Sen said: "Whatever has been said by IFFI 2022 Jury Chairman Mr Nadav Lapid about the film The Kashmir Files from the stage of the closing ceremony of 53rd IFFI was completely his personal opinion."
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He went on to say: "In the official presentation of the Jury Board to the Festival Director and in the official Press Conference, where we four jury members (the fifth had to leave for a personal emergency) were present and interacted with the press, we never mentioned anything about our likes or dislikes. Both were our official collective opinion."
Sen concluded by noting: "As jurors, we are assigned to judge the technical, aesthetic quality and socio-cultural relevance of a film. We don't indulge in any kind of political comments on any film and if it is done, it is completely in a personal capacity -- nothing to do with the esteemed Jury Board."