more-in Filmmaker Bijukumar Damodaran, a member of the jury which chose the winners of the State Film Awards this year, has come out against the plans to invite a superstar as the chief guest for the film awards presentation function to be held in the capital next month. In a Facebook post on Wednesday, he said that he will stay away from the function if the Minister for Culture A.K.Balan sticks to his plan to have the star as a chief guest. Mr.Bijukumar said that the chief guests at a State film award presentation function are the winners themselves and the Chief Minister who presents the award. “The Superstar who is being invited as the chief guest heads a misogynistic organisation which has openly supported the accused in the case related to the gang-rape of a female actor. The Culture Department does not seem to have understood the impropriety in inviting a superstar for his ‘glamour quotient’ at a time when a general feeling exists in the society against the superstar system and the misogyny in Malayalam cinema. The rape accused actor was reinstated into Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes soon after this superstar took over as president. It seems the Culture Minister is living in another world, unaware of the recent happenings in Malayalam cinema,” he said. “The government is making fun of the award winners by having as a chief guest someone who has got nothing to do with the awards this year. Politically conscious artistes should make their stand clear by staying away from such a function. I, as a member of the award jury, have decided to not participate in the function if a superstar gets precedence over the winners. I hope the members of the Women in Cinema Collective and the politically aware members of the Chalachitra Academy general council would do the same,” he said.

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