On Friday evening, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, while inaugurating the 50th state film awards, said that it would be better not to hand out the awards directly to the winners, considering the special situation of having the function amid a pandemic. Instead, the awards were placed on a table beside which the Chief Minister and other dignitaries stood while the award winners came forward to collect it and be honoured. The arrangement, however, attracted criticism from certain quarters.
“Since it’s COVID-19 times, we’ve adopted a special arrangement for such functions. That’s why all of us are sitting at a distance from each other, and wearing masks. Maintaining physical distance and wearing masks is most important. I think we also need a method in award distribution. It’s not ideal for one person, let it be me or anyone else, to present the awards to more than a hundred people in these times. But we also need to honour these artistes. The best way out is to place the awards on a table in front and let the award winner come forward to accept it, while everyone else honours them. To follow COVID-19 protocol, we’ve used this method in some other functions earlier. I request everyone to accept this method,” CM Pinarayi said.
Producer G Suresh Kumar told Asianet News that such an arrangement was not appropriate. The award winners had gone through a COVID-19 test, so what was the problem in handing the trophies to them, he asked. It is equivalent to insulting them when you place the award on a table and ask them to pick it up, he said.
However, a sound technician had tested positive while taking the test ahead of the function, said a source at the Kerala Chalachithra Academy, which organised the event. The Chief Minister did not wear gloves, but instead suggested the use of a table.
Kani Kusruti, who won the award for Best Actor (Female), told TNM that she did not think anything was wrong with the arrangement. “Personally, I don’t care for such customs. We should respect people’s convenience more than these rituals. Any action when done more than once becomes a ritual. In today’s circumstances especially, it didn’t seem offensive to me in any way. We are actors who come from different shooting locations. It’s always better to be safe considering people of different age groups were present there. I’d have been perfectly happy if there was no function at all in the first place and the award was sent home. Even if there was no COVID-19, I’d still prefer it since I don’t prefer going to public functions much anyway. But I can only say how I felt, I don’t know how others feel about it,” Kani said.
She added, “Having said that, I also believe people should be able to get on with their lives, celebrate the little joys, but be safe while they do that. So I appreciate the organisers for conducting this programme in a responsible manner, following all the protocols to keep everyone safe.”
Suresh Kumar, who is known to have a BJP allegiance, cited a previous year’s national award ceremony when many award winners from Kerala had stayed away after it was informed that most of them would receive it from Union Minister Smriti Irani instead of the President of India. Suresh Kumar claimed that he did not say this because of a certain political inclination but because no one else from the industry had said anything.
Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala also criticised Pinarayi Vijayan’s action, saying that the CM had insulted the award winners. “If COVID-19 protocol was the reason, the awards could have been mailed by post,” Chennithala wrote on Facebook. If the CM had instead used gloves, sanitiser and mask, he could have avoided insulting all the artistes, Chennithala said.