Days after director Ranjith questioned the relevance of Dr Biju and his movies, the latter took to social media to answer the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy chairman. The three-time national award winner’s response is nothing short of a masterclass on the significance of arthouse cinema and its makers.

Ranjith, in an interview given to a media house, asked Dr Biju to deliberate on his and his films’ relevance comparing ‘Adrishya Jalakangal’ and another Malayalam film which had a good theatre run and was also a crowd puller at the 28th edition of International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK).

Ranjith said that the screening response to his movie at the IFFK should make Dr Biju understand his relevance. Dr Biju strongly responded to this through a social media post, saying, “First of all, I sympathize with your ignorance. I am no one to make you rethink that crowd response is the only benchmark to decide if a movie is good or not. Apart from Kerala and Goa, since you have not attended any other film festival, I don’t think there is any point in talking to you about international film festivals or movie forms.” Dr Biju added in his response that ‘Adrishya Jalakangal’ had a massive response on its first screening at the IFFK, and for the second screening, the seats were fully booked within five minutes.

He continued, expressing, “Movies that receive acclaim at numerous prestigious film festivals and are invited to be screened at the IFFK hold significant relevance. To assert that such films lack importance is disheartening, and I find it regrettable that the Academy has chosen someone of your calibre as its chairman. When I addressed your comments personally, you responded with a threatening message, stating ‘Enough, stop!’ I want to make it clear that I won’t succumb to your threats, and I won’t tolerate feudal behaviour.”
Concluding his note, Dr Biju affirmed his commitment to creating films based on artistic merit rather than catering solely to crowd appeal.