On Thursday, the corridors of the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) witnessed an unusual sight. Acclaimed filmmaker Miransha Naik, celebrated for his Konkani feature Juze, walked in with his four individual awards — the same ones that had crowned him the biggest winner at the recently concluded Goa State Film Festival. Instead of proud ly showcasing them, however, Naik al most returned the honours in protest.
The reason – ESG’s decision to relegate Juze to the low est ‘C’ grade while evaluating it under the long-delayed Goa Film Finance Scheme. Visibly hurt, Naik placed his trophies before ESG general manager Mrinal Walke and said, “I brought my four awards to the ESG office to return them after I was disappointed that the ESG jury categorised my film Juze in the lowest ‘C’ category, even though the same film had won a maximum of 14 awards at the 10th Goa State Film Festival held in Au gust this year. I myself had won four awards — first prize for Best Feature Film, Best Direction, Best Screenplay, and Best Dialogues. Despite this recognition, the five-member jury placed my film in the lowest category.” Naik, who was visibly hurt, placed his trophies before ESG general manager Mrinal Walke, saying, “I went with my four awards to the ESG office to return them after I was disappointed at the ESG’s panel of jury categorising my film Juze in the lowest ‘C’ category when the same film had won maximum 14 awards at the 10th edition of Goa State Film Festival held in August this year. I myself had won four awards ie first prize for best feature film, first prize for best direction, best screenplay and best dialogues. Despite this commendable performance the five-member jury catego rised my film in lowest ‘C’ category.” Shaken by the protest, Walke urged Naik to wait, assur ing him that ESG would review the grading and appoint an Evaluation Committee to reconsider the films. Within hours, the controversial grading sheet was pulled down from ESG’s website. Convinced by the assurance, Naik de ferred his decision to surrender the awards. For Naik, the humiliation was particularly painful be cause Juze has not only dominated the State festival but also travelled across the world, being screened at 25 in ternational film festivals, from Hong Kong and New York to Mumbai and Dublin. It earned a place in the Official Se lection at the prestigious Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic, and went on to win inter national accolades — including the Special Jury Award at Minsk, Best Debut Director at Bengaluru’s Innovative In ternational Film Festival, and Best Director at the Singa pore Film Festival. The clash between recognition abroad and rejection at home lies at the heart of Naik’s anguish. For a filmmaker who has spent years bringing Konkani cinema to the world stage, the ESG grading came as a stinging contradiction. As the film fraternity watches closely, the incident has sparked wider questions about transparency, credibili ty and the future of the State’s support for home-grown cinema