24 more National Award winning writers and film makers today announced that they will return their awards in protest against growing intolerance in the country and to support protesting FTII students. The most prominent among the list include senior filmmakers like Saeed Mirza, Kundan Shah, Tapan Bose, Sanjay Kak; cinematographer Virendra Saini, Sudhir Palsane and Abhimanyu Dange, documentary maker Anwar Jamal and writer Arundhati Roy.<br/><br/>Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, Kundan Shah said giving up the National Award for his cult film "Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro" was very sad as he owes the award to FTII, his alma mater. Saeed Mirza, a former chairman of FTII and known for his films like "Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyoon Aata Hai" and TV show "Nukkad", said the protest started by the students has become a bigger movement against "intolerance, divisiveness and hate". The film maker said that it is not about the Congress or the BJP as both the parties are the same. He said that the award money will be donated to charity, while the trophies will be given to the representatives of the I&B ministry.<br/><br/>Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy whose screenplay for the 1989 movie "In which Annie Gives it Those Ones" won the National Award rejected claims that the gesture was politically motivated, Roy said the movement is historic and protests against the government's silence on various sensitive issues. She said that issues like beef ban, attack on minorities and efforts to silence writers is shameful. <br/><br/>The others who have resolved to return their awards include Ranjan Palit, Sriprakash, Pradeep Krishnan, Tarun Bhartiya, Amitabh Chakraborty, Madhushree Dutta, Ajay Raina, Irene Dhar Malik, P M Satheesh, Satya Rai Nagpaul, Manoj Lobo, Rafeeq Ellias, Vivek Sachnidanand, Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti and Dr. Manoj Nitharwal.<br/><br/>Documentary film maker from Shillong Tarun Bhartiya, who won national award Rajat Kamal for Best Editor Non Fiction for "In Camera-Diaries of a documentary cameraman", 2009 also announced his decision to return the award. <br/><br/>Last month, 12 filmmakers including Dibakar Banerjee, Anand Patwardhan, Paresh Kamdar, and Nishtha Jain had announced that they would return their National Awards citing the same reasons. They had also expressed disappointment at the Film and Television Institute of India – FTII stalemate.<br/> <br/>Meanwhile, BJP leader Hema Malini today said that the whole issue of people returning their awards is politically instigated. Speaking to a news agency in Mumbai, Ms. Malini said national awards have a reputation attached to them and it is not right to return awards. Film maker Ashoke Pandit also said that it is sad that film-makers who have made property worth crores through their work are claiming that the country is intolerant.