Prominent personalities appeal to Assam govt to cancel

Prominent personalities, including intellectuals, filmmakers, actors, singers, advocates, theatre personalities and journalists on Tuesday appealed the state government to cancel the proposed Filmfare awards in Assam.

Assam Tourism Development Corporation and Times of India Group had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in November last year for the 65th Filmfare Awards at Guwahati on February 15, the first time the awards ceremony will be held outside Mumbai.

Addressing a press conference and issuing a joint statement, 57 leading Assamese personalities from various fields said the award ceremony, scheduled in February, should not be held in view of the ongoing massive protests against the amended Citizenship Act.

Some of the signatories include National Award-winning filmmaker Jahnu Barua, Sahitya Akademi awardee Hiren Gohain, veteran theatre director Dulal Roy, senior journalist Haidor Hussain and actor Jerifa Wahid among others.

"Filmfare is a private function. How come a government get involved in financially supporting a private function at a time when anti-Citizenship Act movement is going on? This will be a neglect to Assamese people. I appeal for a total boycott of the award function," Barua said over the phone from Mumbai.

Senior advocate Arup Barbara claimed the Assam government will spend Rs 30 crore for holding the award ceremony in Guwahati.

"The tickets are starting from Rs 1,000 and goes up to Rs 3,00,000. As per my estimation, the private group will take away Rs 200 crore from Assam ... We demand that this event is cancelled in view of the current situation," he added.

Wahid said the Filmfare award is only for recognising the Hindi film industry and will not help the Assamese industry.

Actor Ravi Sharma said, "This is not the right time to organise Filmfare and have a celebration. We have lost five young boys during anti-CAA protests.