Hyderabad: A group of students from the Hyderabad NALSAR University of Law organised a screening of a documentary on jailed activist Umar Khalid on campus, a student of the institute said on Thursday, September 24.
The screening of the documentary, “Prisoner No. 626710 is Present”, directed by filmmaker Lalit Vachani, was organised late on Wednesday evening, September 23, “in solidarity,” he said.
The screening comes against the backdrop of the documentary’s recent cancellation at the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Hyderabad.
The IIIT-Hyderabad issued “disciplinary warnings” to eight students associated with an independent campus platform that sought to initiate conversations on caste, merit and politics, stating the group was not authorised by the institute.
The undergraduates are associated with ‘No Tyrants, No Silence’ (NTNS), a platform that had proposed the screening of a documentary on jailed activist Khalid on the campus on September 18, drawing objections from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). The screening was subsequently cancelled.
CBFC objection to documentary
Earlier, on September 17, the CBFC had said public screening of a documentary that had not been certified by it would violate the Cinematograph Act unless a specific exemption had been obtained, referring to the proposed screening of “Prisoner No. 626710 is Present.”
The ABVP Bengaluru claimed on September 19 that the proposed screening of the documentary at the National Law School of India University (NLSUI), which was postponed earlier, has been cancelled.
The documentary was proposed to be screened at the university, with the RSS-affiliated students’ body, ABVP, staunchly opposing it.
Khalid, arrested in September 2020, was booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for being one of the “masterminds” of the February 2020 riots that had left 53 people dead and more than 700 injured in Delhi.
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