The following is a mail I received on my inbox this morning. Please read it carefully and speak out as someone who loves Assam, and cares for her.

Hi All,
 
This morning's Sunday Express carried one full page on the nominations for this year's Star Screen Awards. It mentions Jahnu Barua as one of the nominees in the "Best Debut Director" category. It is either ignorance on the part of the Screen (which I don't believe is true as Screen is one of the leading film related publications in India) or just sheer and deliberate negation of all his work done in Assamese all these years. Also, "Maine Gandhi Ko..." is definitely not his debut film even in Hindi as Aparoopa, his debut film in 1982, was also made simultaneously in Hindi (not dubbed, but with a separate caste with Suhasini Mulay playing the lead in both versions). I have e-mailed Shekhar Gupta, group editor of Indian Express and also the Screen editor, voicing my objection to this nomination for obvious reasons. I have appended my mail below this mail, and request all group members to write to them on this at these two ids: sg@expressindia.com, editor@screenindia.com, or reach them through any other medium you know.
 
In fact, this nomination takes the cake, after Barua was described by some news channels as an Oriya and even a Korean director!
 
Utpal Borpujari
Chief Correspondent
Deccan Herald
New Delhi Bureau

This is the mail he wrote to Shekhar Gupta
 
Dear Mr Gupta and editor of Screen India,
 
I am a journalist who writes on films. Quite naturally, I follow the developments related to the film world - the whole world, and not only Hindi cinema - as best as I can to enhance my knowledge base about the subject that I am deeply interested in.
 
That is why I am being forced to write this mail after seeing the list of the nominations for this year's Star Screen Awards, which I consider to be one of the genuine awards amidst the variety of 'fixed' ones.
 
Your nomination for the Best Debut Director contains one name - that of Jahnu Barua, for his film "Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara", which is one of the most significant films to have come out of India in 2005. But I simply don't understand from what angle have you chosen to nominate him in the Best Debut Director category. If you check back issues of Screen, you will come to know that Mr Barua has made nine films before this one, several among them having won top international and national awards. His 'Halodhiya Choraye Baodhan Khai (Catastophe)" had won the President's Swarna Kamal for the best feature film in 1987, "Hkhagoroloi Bohu Door (It's a Long Way to the Sea)" the Swarna Kamal for Best Director in 1996, "Firingoti (Spark)" the 2nd best film National award and the best actress award to Moloya Goswami, and so on.
 
I am from Assam, and I feel this nomination is an insult to all film lovers - not only those from Assam - as with one stroke it has negated all his work done in Assamese all these years, which have made him a great name in the Indian cinema globally. And even if you say that you have nominated him for his debut in Hindi, that too is wrong, as Mr Barua had made a simultaneous Hindi version of his first film "Aparoopa" (Assamese) in 1982, which was called "Apeksha" and had Suhasini Mulay, Girish Karnad, Faroukh Sheikh and Kulbhushan Kharbanda in the main roles. It was produced by NFDC and it is definitely not Mr Barua's fault that it was not given a proper theatrical release as is the habit with NFDC with nearly all its productions.
 
I request you to kindly correct this anomaly immediately. Mr Barua not only does not need to be bracketed with debutants, who are of course among the promising names in Indian cinema, especially after his films have won award in Chicago, Locarno, Bangkok, Fukuoka, Pusan and many other international film festivals, and especially after a retrospective of his films was organised to high acclaim several years ago in Europe.
 
I hope a great publication like Screen and a group like Express, which I intensely admire, would withdraw his name from this particular nomination and rectify the anomaly.
 
With regards,
Utpal Borpujari