After the National Awards Jury said that the makers of the Telugu film C/O Kancharapalem, were ineligible to apply for the National Awards, (because it was produced by Praveena Paruchuri, a US citizen), films buffs expressed outrage on social media. However, the issue has been resolved now.
K.T. Rama Rao, Working President of TRS, via Twitter, appealed to Rajyavardhan Rathore, Minister of Information & Broadcasting (Independent charge) to look into the issue.
While specifying the criteria for eligibility for National Awards, Rathore replied that the concerned officer has guided the film’s co-producer Praveena Paruchuri, and that she can also apply for the International Competition section of International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2019. The film’s director Venkatesh Maha, says, “We are very happy that the Jury has cleared us to apply. Since the criteria is that one of the producers should be from India, and Rana Daggubati, is also a co-producer (his production house has the film’s negative and distribution rights), we are resubmitting the application with Rana as co-producer.”
He adds, “Chaitanya Prasad, Director General, Directorate of Film Festivals, called me and I explained about how the film was made and released.”
Venkatesh also thanks minister K.T. Rama Rao for his timely intervention.
“Since January 15 is the deadline, we tried to reach out to the concerned people, but we couldn’t. But KTR sir, immediately responded and tweeted, and tagged the concerned officials, and as a result, we were able to apply. We also want to thank Rajyavardhan sir and Chaitanya Prasad for their valuable support. So our efforts to get recognition were fruitful and cinema has finally won.”
