The world premiere of Rahul Dholakia’s Parzania—based on true story of a Parsi family whose 10-year-old son went missing after the Gujarat riots—created a controversy at the 36th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa.A section of the audience, which included journalists and delegates, found a bias in the depiction of Hindu fanatics wielding trishuls and swords. The viewers resorted to sloganeering and termed Dholakia as ‘‘pseudo secular’’, alleging that the film was ‘‘funded by Dawood Ibrahim.’’The film clearly shows that the Gujarat violence was state organised. Dholakia was unruffled. ‘‘If you ignore a gangrene in your foot, you might have to amputate it,’’ he said. He refuted the charge that his film is against Hindus. ‘‘If I was making a film on 9/11, you would have said that my film is about Muslim fundamentalism. I’m not making a commercial popcorn film where Hindus kill Muslims who kill them backbut in the end both come out with national integration flags.’’ The commotion and voice levels went so out of control that the organisers had to cut short the Q&A session.
