Director Tha Se Gnanavel’s critically-acclaimed Tamil courtroom drama ‘Jai Bhim’ has made it to the World Competition segment of the 20th Pune International Film Festival, which is scheduled to be held from March 3 to 10.

The other films that are in this category are director Gabor Fabricius’s ‘Erasing Frank’ (Hungary), director Iciar Bollain’s ‘Maixabel’ (Spain), director Shawkat Amin Korki’s ‘The Exam’ (Germany, Iraq-kurdistan, Qatar), director Laura Wandel’s ‘Playground’ (Belgium), director Simon Holy’s ‘Zrcadla Ve Tme'(‘Mirrors in the Dark’) (Czech Republic), director Leonardo Antonio’s ‘Submission’ (Portugal, France), director Selman Nacar’s ‘Iki Safak Arasinda'(‘Between Two Dawns’) (Turkey, Romania, France, Spain), director Mohamed Diab’s ‘Amira’ (Egypt) and Aleksey German Jr.’s ‘House Arrest’ (Russia).

The Pune International Film Festival, a prestigious event, is Maharashtra’s official film festival.

2D Entertainment, the firm that produced ‘Jai Bhim’ shared its excitement at the film having made it to the Pune Film Festival’s World Competition segment.

Taking to Twitter, the production house said, “‘Jai Bhim’ makes it into the World Competition line up at PIFF India.”

Interestingly, ‘Jai Bhim’ was one of the Indian films that were on the list of 276 movies eligible for this year’s Academy Awards. However, it did not make it to the nominations.

Inspired by true events that happened in Tamil Nadu in the nineties, the film tells the moving story of an upright lawyer coming to the aid of poor, defenceless people from the Irular community who have no means to stand up to the might of an inhuman police force that seeks to exploit their helplessness and audaciously commits atrocity after atrocity on them with impunity.

Director Tha Se Gnanavel’s critically acclaimed courtroom drama, ‘Jai Bhim’, featuring actors Suriya, Lijomol Jose and Manikandan in the lead, has won three awards at the Ninth Noida International Film festival, 2022.

The film fetched Suriya the Best Actor award and Lijomol Jose, the award for Best Actress. It also took home the award for Best Film. On Monday, Rajsekar Karpoorasundarapandian, the CEO of 2D Entertainment, the production house that produced the film, announced the news on twitter.

He tweeted that ‘Jai Bhim’ had won the Best Film, Best Actor for Suriya and Best Actress award for Lijomol Jose at the Noida International Film Festival 2022!

The film, which tells the moving story of an upright lawyer coming to the aid of poor, defenseless people from the Irular community who have no means to stand up to the might of an inhuman police force that seeks to exploit their helplessness and commits atrocity after atrocity on them with impunity, has been winning widespread acclaim ever since it released.

Overwhelmed by the support pouring in for him from both the film industry and from fans across the country, Tamil star Suriya on Wednesday took to Twitter to express his gratitude.

He tweeted: “This love for #Jaibhim is overwhelming. I’ve never witnessed this before! Can’t express in words how thankful I am for the trust and reassurance you all have given us. Heartfelt thanks for standing by us.”

The actor, who hasn’t been on Twitter for quite a while, also took time to respond individually to some of the tweets, both from fans and other celebrities.

Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu Thiraipada Iyakkunargal Sangam (TANTIS), better known as the Tamil Film Directors’ Union, has backed Suriya and written a letter to PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss, urging him to look at Suriya as a brother.

Stating that both creative freedom and political freedom were important, the office-bearers of the Directors’ Union pointed out to Ramadoss that if a mistake had occurred unknowingly, resolving the issue in a friendly manner would be the most healthy thing to do.

Coming out strongly in support of its member, actor and producer Suriya, the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce on Monday asked PMK leader and former Union minister Anbumani Ramadoss to refrain from criticising the actor over his film ‘Jai Bhim’.

In a letter to Ramadoss, South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce President Katragadda Prasad pointed out that Suriya had acceded to his request for removal of a symbol from the Tamil film ‘Jai Bhim’ that was recently released on an OTT platform.

“Respecting your feelings, our member Suriya immediately removed that symbol from the film,” Prasad said.

“The South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce is pained by the fact that your party cadres continue to criticise Suriya despite neither the hero of the film nor the production house having anything to do with the decision to use that symbol in the film,” the President of the Chamber said.

Pointing out that Suriya, who did not have any political, caste or religious affiliations, was a socially responsible philanthropist and was a beacon of hope in the field of education, especially to students on the fringes of society, Prasad urged Ramadoss to refrain from criticising the actor.

The stand-off between the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and actor Suriya over the issue of the latter’s film ‘Jai Bhim’ allegedly insulting the Vanniyar community escalated on Sunday when a group of PMK cadres forced a theatre in Mayiladuthurai district to stop screening a Suriya film.

Sources said that a group of PMK cadres raised slogans outside the Peerless theatre on Park Avenue Road that was screening ‘Vel’, a Suriya film. The theatre management pulled out the film that was being screened.

The group, led by PMK’s Mayiladuthurai district secretary Panneerselvam, also submitted a petition to Mayiladuthurai Superintendent of Police, demanding action against Suriya.

Speaking to reporters, Pannerselvam, who said that the PMK would not allow any Suriya film to be screened in Mayiladuthurai, went on to announce a reward of Rs one lakh to anybody who assaults the actor when he visits the district.

Only days ago, a war of words had erupted between PMK chief Anbumani Ramadoss, who wrote a letter to Suriya, levelling allegations and demanding answers. Suriya had on Thursday neatly responded in kind, politely but firmly denying allegations and replying to all the questions asked.