2023 BAFTA Awards: 'RRR' misses out, Shaunak Sen's 'All That Breathes' nominated in best documentary
New Delhi, Jan 6: Filmmaker SS Rajamouli's period action blockbuster "RRR" on Thursday missed out on the nomination at the 2023 BAFTA Film Awards, but Shaunak Sen made it to the final five in the best documentary segment with "All That Breathes".
"RRR" was in the longlist for the 'film not in English language' category but couldn't find a spot in the segment's final nominees list, which were announced by British actors Hayley Atwell and Toheeb Jimoh via a livestream.
The final five nominees of the category were "All Quiet on the Western Front", "Argentina, 1985", "Corsage", "Decision To Leave", and "The Quiet Girl".
Sen's "All That Breathes", an internationally co-produced Hindi title, is nominated in the best documentary category along with "All the Beauty and the Bloodshed", "Fire of Love", "Moonage Daydream" and "Navalny".
Set in Delhi, the documentary follows two siblings, Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad, who have devoted their lives to rescuing and treating injured birds, especially black kites.
"All That Breathes" previously won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary at this year's Sundance Film Festival, a film gala that promotes independent cinema and filmmakers, and earned the Golden Eye award for the best documentary at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.
The 2023 BAFTA award ceremony will take place on February 19 at the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall.
The BAFTA snub of "RRR" comes as a rare miss for the film which earlier this month bagged a Golden Globe for best original song for the Telugu track "Naatu Naatu" and Critics Choice Awards for best foreign language film and best song.
"RRR", a pre-independence fictional story, follows two real-life Indian revolutionaries - Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan) and Komaram Bheem (Jr NTR) - in the 1920s. The film also featured Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn in special appearances.
At the Golden Globes, "RRR" was also nominated in the 'best picture-non English' cateogry but lost out to Argentina's historical drama "Argentina, 1985".
The "RRR" team will now look forward to the final nominations for the 95th Academy Awards, where the film's track "Naatu Naatu" will vie for a spot in the best music (original song).
"All That Breathes" is aiming for a place in the top five of the best documentary feature category at the Oscars.
The two movies had made it to Oscars' shortlists for their respective categories last month.
Besides, India's official entry to the upcoming Oscars "Chhello Show" and documentary short "The Elephant Whisperers" are also contending for spots in the final five of best international feature film and best documentary shorts categories, respectively.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
_vb_22.jpeg)
