The Kerala Story Director Sudipto Sen Slams Awards Show; Takes Indirect Dig At 'Blatantly Plagiarised' Laapataa Ladies

Kiran Rao's Laapataa Ladies (2024) swept the 2025 Filmfare Awards with 13 wins, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (male and female), Best Screenplay, Best Dialogue and more. Abhishek Bachchan and Kartik Aaryan shared the trophy for Best Actor (male) in Leading Role for their performances in I Want To Talk and Chandu Champion, while Alia Bhatt bagged Best Actress for Jigra. The Kerala Story (2023) director Sudipto Sen is disappointed with the Filmfare Awards. He slammed the awards calling it ‘tamasha’ in the name of cinema.

What Sudipto Sen said about Filmfare Awards

Sudipto shared a note on Filmfare Awards on his Instagram handle. It read, "This year Filmfare truly is an expose of Indian ‘nouvelle vague’… A blatantly plagiarised film… a film which is a tutorial of brutality and a film which did not survive the box office for more than 72 hours took away most of the crowns. As expected the best work of 2024 remain elusive. Realised, why Filmfare was so vocal against The Kerala Story receiving National Awards. I am happy that this ‘wood’ community does not recognise, invite or choose us (sic)".

"We are spared from faking smiles, faking comradier, and most importantly, not indulging in any sycophancy. In the end- I am happy that we are saved from hobnobbing with this tamasha in the name of cinema in Mumbai and clicking selfies in Cannes. Atleast we are saved from these ugly hypocrisies and fake tapestry in the name of cinema (sic)," he wrote further.

Sen captioned the post, "I never expect anything great from any Indian cinema establishment, particularly when it is media or cinema journalism. They are mostly enamored by the glamor and rich-world of the stars, exactly the way people from villages and small cities gather in front of Mr. Bachchan or SRK' shouse. They actually have ZERO contribution towards Indian cinema, cinema art - contrary to the way world media does for world cinemas (sic)."

Sudipto did not take the names of the films, but it was obvious from his post that by ‘blatantly plagiarised’ he was hinting at Laapataa Ladies, with ‘tutorial of brutality’ he meant Kill, and with ‘did not survive the box office for more than 72 hours’, he was referring to I Want To Talk.

For the unversed, Sudipto received the National Award for Best Director for The Kerala Story, and Best Cinematography was awarded to Prasanthanu Mohapatra. Later, the jury was criticised for honouring the film that was allegedly Islamophobic and divisive.