Known to be a man of few words. director Mani Ratnam spoke out his heart
about the Central Board of Film Certification of India and many other
film related issues in the Bengaluru International Film Festival
inaugurated this week in the Karnataka capital.
The ace filmmaker charged the (political)
parties who have ruled the country over the years of misusing the
Censor Board for pushing their political agendas there by paving way to
extra constitutional authorities dictating the terms on how the films
should be made in India.
However the 'O Kadhal Kanmani' director,
welcomed the Indian Government's appointment of a panel headed by
veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal to revamp the Censor board.
Mani Ratnam also credited Benegal and
veteran Tamil filmmaker Iyakkunar Sigaram K.Balachander for inspiring
him on realistic film-making. He also hailed Bollywood filmmaker Guru
Dut for making films that have stood the test of time.
An interesting incident also happened
during the presence of Mani Ratnam in the event. A young film-making
course student sought five minutes of Mani Ratnam's time in backstage to
which the filmmaker admired by the entire country apparently obliged.
The youngster later revealed that he requested Mani Ratnam to take him
as an assistant, but the legendary director advised him to make short
films and upload them in youtube, which has become a better and easier
way to get noticed and enter the main stream film industries.
