An uncertain wait for filmmakers selected in IDSFFK after Union I&B Ministry “ban”

Eight documentaries await censor exemption at the film festival

Updated - September 28, 2026 10:00 am IST - THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Artist Orijit Sen in a scene from the documentary Parliament Street, directed by Spandan Banerjee, which is yet to get censor exemption from the Union I&B Ministry for screening at the 18th IDSFFK

Documentary filmmakers Afiya Khalid and Rizwan Rahman have become accustomed to their film ‘Sanitised Republic: Cast(e) & Contracts’ being prevented from screening at festivals following intervention by the Union government. One of the eight documentaries yet to be given censor exemption by the Union Information & Broadcasting Ministry at the 18th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Keralam (IDSFFK), this is the third consecutive festival where its screening was cancelled.

“The Ministry objected to a short audio clip of Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing the COVID-19 lockdown and wanted it removed. We cut the part which they objected to, when they further asked for the removal of a news screenshot on the PM. Even after removing that, they have not cleared the film,” Ms. Khalid tells The Hindu.

The film follows sanitation workers at Delhi’s Kalawati Saran Children’s Hospital and Lady Hardinge Medical College who risked their lives working through the COVID-19 pandemic, only to lose their jobs in June 2022. Through their struggle for secure employment and dignity, the film examines the realities of contractual labour and the relationship between caste and sanitation work in contemporary India.

“Caste has so much to do with contractualisation. Workers from oppressed castes are subjected to extreme forms of discrimination. Caste is very important to be looked at in everything in India, not to be talked about in an abstract manner, but in the foundational issue directly,” says Ms. Khalid.

Unclear grounds for denial

In the case of Spandan Banerjee’s documentary ‘Parliament Street’, the denial of exemption appears to have stemmed from wrongful assumptions over its name, similar to the manner in which a film named ‘Beef’ was denied screening at last year’s IFFK. Banerjee’s documentary is about an alternative shop People Tree, co-founded by artist Orijit Sen, that was located on Delhi’s Parliament Street. “The documentary has no reference or any other things the government might be concerned about, especially the Cockroach Janta Party protests which happened there after the film was made. It is a film about minor histories, about memory, art and archives in Parliament Street, which holds a lot of importance for me. I feel so bewildered as to what could be the reason, because they haven’t told us anything,” says Banerjee, whose previous documentaries have won awards at the IDSFFK. One of the other documentaries which is effectively facing a ban at the festival is Sankaraa’s ‘The Mali and the Parasite’, which chronicles the resistance put up by tribal communities in Odisha against their displacement for the mining activities of Vedanta Limited. Bipuljit Basu’s ‘Redlight to Limelight’ is based on the video production unit ‘Came-On’ run by sex workers and their children at a Kolkata brothel. The collective shot their original stories and uploaded compelling videos reflecting on the pressing issues of the community on YouTube.

Sharanya Deyy’s banned short film ‘In Search of Buddha’ follows two filmmakers as they search for the truth about a forgotten Naxal leader named Buddha whose ultimate fate is shrouded in mystery.

The Kerala High Court, which earlier issued notices to the I&B Ministry, is expected to take up the case regarding the censor exemption on Monday. A collective of filmmakers has urged the festival to ensure that the five films in the Competition category that have not received an exemption are still included in the jury process for award consideration. In a discussion with Raveendran, the new chairperson of the Chalachitra Academy, the filmmakers also urged the Academy to cancel the awards this year as a mark of protest if the Union government does not clear all the documentaries.

Published - September 28, 2026 07:00 am IST

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