Earlier this year, Nandana Sen represented India on the International Jury of the Pune Film Festival; Nandana is now in Austria, serving on the World Feature Film Jury of the Innsbruck International Film Festival, the largest festival of the region. But being elected to film juries is not new to Nandana, who has previously served on prestigious juries such as the Roma Fiction Fest, and Abu Dhabi International Film Festival (along with Abbas Kiarostami, no less).
Coincidentally, the only Indian film selected by Innsbruck is Ketan Mehta’s recently released critical success Rang Rasiya, starring Randeep Hooda and Nandana Sen, which earned the controversial actress a Kalakar Award for Best Actress. When asked why he selected Rang Rasiya, Festival Director Helmut Groschup responded, “Rang Rasiya is the best Indian film I saw in the last year. It opens our European eyes to Indian culture in a non-exotic way, and the female protagonist is excellently
The film’s focus on justice and on freedom of opinions and creativity is very important.”This focus must resonate with Nandana too, who is notorious for the freedom with which she voices her strong opinions, and as a passionate child-rights activist has often served on an entirely different kind of Jury aimed at Justice for children – the Official Jury at Public Hearings held by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
Now we have only one wish. Let’s hope Nandana’s reputation for being headstrong and outspoken causes no one any in-Jury in Innsbruck!
