The Central Board of Film Certification denied screening permission to Da’lit Kids without explanation, removing it from Animela’s line-up a day before its Mumbai screening.
The Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute student film’s removal sparked protests and solidarity withdrawals from fellow filmmakers.
Its exclusion, despite festival recognition, raises concerns about censorship and shrinking space for caste-critical student cinema in India.
The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), which functions under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, has denied permission for the Malayalam animated short Da’Lit Kids (2025) to be screened at the Animela Animation Film Festival in Mumbai. The film, directed by Appu Soman with sound design by Tony Joppan, emerged from the 17th batch of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI). Its removal came a day before the scheduled screening after the Ministry reportedly withheld the routine exemption granted to student films. No written explanation was provided. In response, fellow SRFTI filmmakers withdrew their works in solidarity, leaving the institute’s programmed slot at the festival deliberately vacant.
On 20 February, the SRFTI Students’ Union issued a formal statement condemning the decision. Their objection rested on principle. Its exclusion therefore signals more than administrative caution and reveals institutional discomfort with cinema that documents structural inequality without dilution. The union described the denial as an act of censorship and affirmed solidarity with filmmakers who confront caste through cinematic form. Their position was unequivocal. Cinema must remain a space where dissent can exist without prior permission.
Institutional responses exposed internal contradictions
SRFTI Vice Chancellor Samiran Datta publicly stated that they did not support censorship and called the festival’s reversal unfortunate. Dhivahar Muthuveeran, president of the SRFTI Students’ Union, drew attention to the structural irony. SRFTI itself operates under the same ministry that oversees certification. When students within such an institution cannot exhibit their work, the constraint extends beyond a single film. It reshapes the conditions under which future filmmakers learn to speak. Amritanshu Singh Yadav, president of the Film and Television Institute of India students’ association, articulated this clearly. Censorship imposed on film schools is censorship imposed on the future tense of Indian cinema. Videos of protests led by Soman, Joppan and alumni circulated widely, transforming institutional restriction into public scrutiny.
Audience reception tells a different story
The irony deepens when placed against the film’s reception elsewhere. Da’lit Kids was selected at the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala and the Dharamshala International Film Festival, where it received recognition for both artistic and political clarity. Outlook, too, covered the film within its survey of contemporary anti-caste cinema, situating it within a growing body of work that refuses erasure.
Implications of the censorship
The film itself is formally restrained and politically precise. It follows Aravind, a Dalit schoolboy humiliated by his teacher for a minor error. Animation becomes a medium capable of rendering memory, humiliation and resistance within the same frame. To prevent such a film from screening is to regulate who may be seen and heard within public culture. India’s Constitution guarantees freedom of expression under Article 19(1)(a), subject to reasonable restrictions. When restriction arrives without reason, it ceases to appear reasonable. It appears disciplinary. The absence of explanation becomes its own statement. The SRFTI Students’ Union concluded their protest with a line that carries both urgency and inheritance: for cinema, for dignity, for liberation.
