‘Withdraw Cases Against Cannes Grand Prix Winner Payal Kapadia,’ Shashi Tharoor Tells PM Modi

New Delhi: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw the cases against Cannes Grand Prix winner Payal Kapadia and fellow Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) students over their 2015 protest against the appointment of Gajendra Singh Chauhan as the chief of the premier institute.

“Modi ji, if India is proud of her, should your government not immediately #WithdrawTheCases against her and fellow FTII students protesting against your government’s arbitrary appointment of an unqualified chairman?” Tharoor tweeted.

Notably, Gajendra Chauhan gained popularity after playing Yudhishtir in the TV serial ‘Mahabharat’.

The Thiruvananthapuram MP also shared the post of Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulating Payal Kapadia for winning the award at Cannes for her film ‘All We Imagine As Light’.

Tharoor is the latest personality to make the demand after Oscar-winning sound engineer Resul Pookutty. Pookutty, who won the Oscar for his work in Slumdog Millionaire, has launched a campaign asking the FTII to drop the cases against its students who led the 139-day campaign in 2015.

“Payal Kapadia comes back from Cannes and next month goes for her court case hearing that FTII lodged against her for striking against the appointment of Chauhan as the chairman! Interesting, isn’t it?” Pookutty told a news outlet.

Kapadia received praise from the film fraternity and PM Modi after she became the first Indian filmmaker to win the Grand Prix award, the second-highest honour, at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

The case against Payal Kapadia

Kapadia led the student agitation in 2015 against the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as the chairman of FTII. The protests stretched to nearly 140 days and the Pune Institute had initiated action against her for boycotting classes.

The protesting students held that Chauhan did not match the stature of the past chairmen of the FTII governing council and called it a “political appointment”.

An FIR was also registered against 35 students, including Kapadia, for holding the then FTII director, Prashant Pathrabe, captive in his office. The students were also booked for unlawful assembly, criminal intimidation and rioting.