IFFI jury head's comment on 'The Kashmir Files' insult to horrors faced by Kashmiri Hindus: Goa CM

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday said the comments made by Nadav Lapid, jury head of the 53rd International Film Festival of India IFFI, about the film The Kashmir Files were an insult to the horrors faced by Kashmiri Hindus.Sawant was in Gujarat to take part in the BJPs campaign for the first phase of the Assembly elections scheduled to be held on December 1.I condemn the IFFI jury chairmans statement on The Kashmir Files.

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday said the comments made by Nadav Lapid, jury head of the 53rd International Film Festival of India (IFFI), about the film 'The Kashmir Files' were an insult to the ''horrors faced by Kashmiri Hindus''.

Sawant was in Gujarat to take part in the BJP's campaign for the first phase of the Assembly elections scheduled to be held on December 1.

''I condemn the IFFI jury chairman's statement on 'The Kashmir Files'. Lapid misused the platform by saying such things. Even the Israeli Ambassador has condemned Lapid's views and said he had misused the platform,'' Sawant told reporters here.

He expressed confidence that the National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC) will take note of the issue as jury selection had been done by the Central government-controlled body and not the Goa government.

At the closing ceremony of the IFFI on Monday night in Goa, Israeli filmmaker Lapid termed Vivek Agnihotri-directed 'The Kashmir Files' a ''propaganda movie'' and called it ''vulgar''. He had served as the jury head of the film gala.

He was ''disturbed and shocked'' to see the film being screened at the festival, he added.