The scribes went from Bangalore to Tumkur to cover the 2002-2003 State Film Awards boycotted the function for lack of sitting arrangements at the venue – Mahatma Gandhi stadium on Sunday.
The cine journalists sat on a dharna in front of the dais on the vacant floors at 6.15 pm hoping that the sitting arrangements would be made to cover the four hours long assignment. Looking at our fate the veteran actor Srinivasamurthy and his son Nitil Krishna joined us in the dharna. Later most of the award winners such as B.Suresha, Shylaja Nag, Baraguru Ramachandrappa family, B.M.Venkatesh, Baby Raksha and her family and to top it all best actor award winner Sudeep sat along with the scribes. After one hour of protest and slogan shouting the cinema journalists boycotted the function and walked out of the venue.
At this time they saw the seniors of the film industry like Siddalingaiah, R.Lakshman, Janakiram, former President of Film chamber of K.V.Chandrasekhar sitting on a cement floor at a corner. The scribes joined them and explained the whole situation. The sitting President of KFCC S.Ramesh failed to make arrangements and the minister for information of Government of Karnataka Dr.Parameshawara came to the scribes folding his hands like a real politician. The scribes did not budge even after he promised to make arrangements.
Without covering the assignment for the first time in the history of film awards the journalists walked out of the venue and reached their homes with the help of M.G.Rammurthy - producer of Majestic and Dharma Kannada films .
INSULT TO NADA GEETHE
The government order passed recently that says the Rashtrakavi Kuvempu written poem Jayabharatha Jananiya… should be sung in all the functions and the respect should be given to it is similar to that of national anthem was shown disrespect.
In Sunday’s newspapers all the vernaculars carried the state poem issued by Karnataka government. While clearing the poem it also mentioned that while singing this all should get up and show respect. It was only journalists who stood up (because they were really made to stand) and the entire ministry that attended the awards evening was sitting on the dais to hear this song. For this ‘Nada Geethe’ the dance composed was in bad taste. How can the information ministry that has issued the GO forget on the very first day of issue of GO? This is a major lapse on the part of the government.