Age Exclusive: After returning award in 2015, filmmaker has change of heart

New Delhi: Documentary filmmaker Lipika Singh Darai, who in 2015 returned her awards accusing the BJP government of “fanning intolerance”, seemed to have a change of heart and on May 3 accepted the national award for her new documentary — The Waterfall. Interestingly, though she had earlier returned the awards to the Narendra Modi government, her film was selected for the awards under the same political dispensation.

Sources said her name was selected by the committee despite the fact that Lipika had returned her earlier awards and had severely criticised the functioning of the Central government. It also elicits that the process established for selecting contenders for national awards is a transparent one and does not discriminate against anyone, sources added.

When contacted Lipika refused to clarify as to what forced her to change her stance regarding the Modi government and on the issue of taking awards from the regime to which she and her fellow filmmakers had returned awards a couple of years ago. “I don’t want to answer these questions?” Lipika said.

The filmmaker bagged the Best Director Award in the recently held 64th National Film Award in the Best Educational Film category for The Waterfall.

The documentary traces the evolution of a young city boy, Karun, to appreciate the value of the environment and think critically about climate change and development.

When contacted, documentary-maker Anand Patwardhan, who too had returned his awards, had nothing much to say. “It’s her personal decision. Earlier, she returned her award, now she’s accepting,” he told this newspaper. Incidentally, Lipika and Patwardhan were among other signatories of the letter sent to President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which had condoled the BJP government of “intolerance” and returned the honour bestowed on them by the state.  

Hailing from tribal community Ho, from Odisha’s backward Mayurbhanj district, Lipika is a graduate of the country’s prestigious Film and Television Institute of India Pune. She was among 10 filmmakers who had returned their National Awards In October 2015 in solidarity with protesting FTII students and against growing intolerance in the country.

In a letter to the President and PM, the group, including Lipika, had stated, “We feel compelled to return the honour the state has bestowed on us. Condoling deaths without interrogating the forces that scripted those murder revealed a tacit acceptance of the ugly force distorting our country. As filmmakers we stand with the students of FTII and are determined to not let them shoulder the entire burden of the protest”.