Kolkata: After the last-minute cancellation of Appu Soman’s 6-minute film ‘Da’lit Kids’ at the Animela Animation Festival in Mumbai and the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, the film was screened at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) on Friday.The screening started at 6.30 pm on Friday. Soman told TOI that he was “overwhelmed” and “excited” that FTII also chose to screen the films of fellow filmmakers who stood by him and withdrew their work from Animela. He described it as “a community coming together”. “The 2 premier film institutes, although operating as separate entities, always came together in times of need,” he said.Stanzin Smonlam, a screening committee member of FTII, was happy to be able to screen Soman’s film. “Screenings were entirely decided by students in the past. About 2 years ago, a screening committee was formed. In recent times, we saw draconian measures introduced to prevent students from taking proactive roles in screening films of our choice. We wanted to screen ‘Da’lit Kids’ as it was made by an SRFTI student — our sister institute — and it was imperative for us to show solidarity. Before the screening, I read out a statement which was sent by the SRFTI student union. In educational institutes, we have the right to screen films of our choice. But in the recent past, whenever we wanted to screen a film, certain clauses were put forward. All kinds of conventions were cited. This time, we were simply lucky to be able to screen ‘Da’lit Kids’ without any problems,” Smonlam said.The response at FTII was touching for the SRFTI student. It included personal messages and other expressions of solidarity, with viewers calling the film “need of the hour” and reflecting on how animation can transcend the line between visual and sonic storytelling, while also questioning why a film needed to be stopped at an animation festival.When asked about the controversy surrounding the permission for screening, the director of “Da’lit Kids” said, “I believe the ministry or board, whoever did not give permission to screen the film, actually did not watch the film. This is how it happens with any film.” Referring to the issue of how the ministry of information and broadcasting denied clearance for 19 films at the 2025 International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), including the 1925 classic ‘Battleship Potemkin’ and the Spanish drama ‘Beef’, due to a lack of mandatory censorship exemptions, Soman said, “This govt and its minions fear the people who speak. The first thing they’ll do is take away the spaces,” arguing that restricting spaces only strengthens resistance. He also called it “ironic” that a project made under an institute of the I&B Ministry did not receive a censor certificate. “My next steps are to obtain certification for ‘Da’lit Kids’, continue making films, and build alternative spaces for voices outside institutional protection,” he said.
