Kerala Education Minister V Shivkutty questioned why the specialty of actor Prithviraj Sukumaran in the Malayalam film ‘Manjivitha – The goat life’ was completely ignored at the National Film Awards. He was indirectly referring to the dispute around ‘Ampuran’ directed by Prithviraj.

Sivankutty also asked whether Prithviraj is not considered for the Best Actor Award and the film is being completely ignored in all categories. Shivkutty said in a statement that although he likes actor Shah Rukh Khan, he felt that Prithviraj’s performance was more worthy of ‘Amanjivitha – The goat life’.

Reacting to the concerns of the Education Minister, the film’s director, Ashirwad said, “I saw the minister’s response. I am happy that the minister reacted in this way. It is a reminder to the society that it is not just my issue. Many people have reacted. As far as this is an issue about the film, I think it is not a complaint with the film.

He further said, “See, when we make a film and the film gets a lot of acceptance at the state level, we will send it to national awards with expectations. We had expectations in all categories and those who know about 14 nominations were sent from here. There is no point in making a statement that it was deliberately ignored.”

“I read somewhere that the film failed to win the award due to its technical issues. The man said that when I was in Mumbai for the Oscar campaign, I was called. Chairperson said that he had not seen, a film was seen, which was so beautiful after the film ‘Lawrence of Arabs’. The second time was wrong.

One of the members of the jury panel, Pradeep Nair allegedly revealed that Ashutosh Goverkar felt that the film, which is a conversion of the novel with the same title, had some technical issues, lack of nature and performance was not authentic.

The 71st National Film Awards were announced on 1 August 2025.