Fifty third national film awards were to be announced on the 12th of May which has been stayed by the Delhi High court. This comes in wake of a petition filed by a jury member Shyamali Bannerjee in the award panel who claimed favoritism in the selection of films. Tamil film Anniyan and Hindi film Black were said to be winning awards in special effects and best film category respectively.
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But according to Ms Bannerjee these films were not deemed fit in the preliminary round itself.
As regards Black, she alleges that the story of the film is based on an English film ‘the miracle of worker’ and as per the rules of the national film awards, films that have their source of inspiration from other languages cannot be conferred with awards. Justice Kailash Gambhir who is conducting the enquiry on this petition has issued orders that the national awards for 2005 cannot be declared without court approval and has also directed the Ministry and the Directorate of Film Festivals to produce their reply in court on or before July 26th.
