Bharathiraja Dragged To Court

Bharathiraja has been served a notice by the Kerala High Court along with the Kerala state government and Chalanachitra Academy. The court's order came after a filmmaker filed a petition alleging irregularities in the selection process of the films for the awards.

Anil Ambalalkkara, the producer of Perariyathavar, has filed the petition. After getting information from the RTI (Right to Information) about Bharathiraja's visits and stay in the state to watch the movies, he has gone to the court.

His argument is that it could not have possible for Bharathiraja to see all the 85 movies in such a short time. The Tamil filmmaker stayed in Kochi for nine days. He stayed for three days from March 19 to March 21 and six days from March 30-April 4.

There were 85 movies in the race and Bharathiraja could have easily avoided some movies as he had very less time to watch. Biju, the director of Perariyathavar, has said that the DVDs of most of the films including his movie has not been released. "Most of the films, including Perariyathavar, haven't released yet and its DVDs are not available. So, how is it possible to watch such a film elsewhere?'' he asks.

However, director Hari Kumar, who was one of the members of the jury, has defended Bharathiraaja and has said that the Tamil filmmaker has seen all the films.