
Director Dibakar Banerjee joined 11 other filmmakers and returned the National Award, which was conferred to the hit film "Khosla Ka Ghosla".
Dibakar returned the award in support of Film and Television Institute
of India students and raised the issue of 'growing intolerance in the
country'.
However, his decision didn't go down well with the producer of "Khosla
Ka Ghosla" Savita Raj Hiremath, who tweeted saying that the award was
for Best Film and not for Best Director.
"@AnupamPkher Khosla kaghosla National award was for best film
not Director its joint.we r not returnning proud.of.It," she tweeted.
"People work for this honour all their lives, we were lucky to receive
it for our first film. Why would I give up something so dear for a cause
which seems politically motivated? I don't see anything having gone
drastically wrong with the country in the last year-and-a-half. If
anything, the protests by a particular group are only maligning India's
image," Hiremath told Mumbai Mirror.
Hiremath added that Dibakar later apologised, but she is not convinced
with his decision. She said that Dibakar decided to return "Khosla Ka
Ghosla" award, because "Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye" was produced by a bigger
production house.
When asked about the same, Dibakar said, "I did not think -`why Khosla, why not Lucky' -when I raised the issue."
Meanwhile, actress Raveena Tandon slammed the director for returning the
award. Speaking to a news channel, Raveena called Dibakar a 'joke'.
"Dibakar Banerjee is a joke. Intolerance in this country wasn't born yesterday," Raveena said,