New Delhi: The Centre on Monday said no film had been denied permission for screening at the upcoming International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Keralam (IDSFFK), asserting that several films are under consideration and awaiting review by different authorities. The Union information and broadcasting ministry’s clarification came after Congress MP Shashi Tharoor described the reported denial of permission to 31 films at the 18th edition of IDSFFK as an “assault on the freedom of expression” and urged Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to intervene.
“Permission has not been denied to any film for screening in the 18th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Keralam. Six films have been requested to provide more detailed synopsis. Depending on the subject of the films, some have been sent to various sectoral authorities for their review,” the ministry said in a post on X.
Union government sources said the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, which organises the festival, had submitted 347 films for exemption from certification requirements.
Of these, exemption has been issued for 291 films, while 24 films are already certified and therefore do not require such exemption, sources said.
They said 20 films have been referred to the Ministry of External Affairs for a no-objection certificate, one to the Ministry of Defence, four to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and one to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for clarification.
Detailed synopses and screeners have been sought for another six films, they said.
The figures provided by the government sources account for 32 films that have either been referred to other authorities or for which additional details have been sought.
Controversy erupted after Keralam Culture Minister P C Vishnunadh said 31 films selected for the festival had not been granted permission for screening.
Vishnunadh, however, also said the Union information and broadcasting ministry had not communicated that permission for the films was being denied. According to him, the Centre had sent the Academy a list of films granted permission, while the remaining 31 had not received clearance yet.
Joining the row, Tharoor, the Lok Sabha member from Thiruvananthapuram, said he was “shocked to learn of the denial of permission” for the 31 films.
“This is not only a betrayal of India’s proud tradition of offering a home to the best of world cinema, but an assault on the freedom of expression that is amongst the greatest assets of our democracy,” he had said in a post on X.
“The government risks shredding our country’s already frayed image globally amongst creative artists, film-makers, writers and those who want to admire their work,” he had said, urging Vaishnaw to “overrule the bureaucrats who have taken such an appalling decision”.
The 18th edition of IDSFFK is scheduled to be held in Thiruvananthapuram from September 25 to 30. The festival is organised by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, an autonomous institution under the state government’s Department of Cultural Affairs.
Reports had earlier said the films awaiting clearance included ‘Parliament Street’, ‘Sanitised Republic: Cast(e) and Contracts’, ‘Globe’, ‘Memories of a Window’, ‘Birds of War’ and ‘Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk’.
The controversy comes less than a year after a similar stand-off between the Centre and the Keralam government over films selected for the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK).
In December 2025, 19 films selected for the 30th IFFK were at one stage awaiting certification exemption from the Centre, disrupting some scheduled screenings and triggering protests. The films included Palestinian titles as well as Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 Soviet classic ‘Battleship Potemkin’.
The erstwhile Keralam government, led by the Left Front, then announced that all 19 films would be screened irrespective of whether exemptions were received. Clearances subsequently came in batches, including for ‘Battleship Potemkin’, while six films ultimately remained without exemption and their screenings were cancelled.
Under the certification framework, films that have not been certified by the CBFC require an exemption from certification for screening at film festivals.
The Union information and broadcasting ministry’s Films Wing handles requests for exemption of films from the certification process, as well as matters relating to domestic and international film festivals.
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