NEW DELHI: Three Goa film festival jury members - American producer Jinko Gotoh, French film editor Pascale Chavance and French documentary filmmaker Javier Angulo Barturen - have come out in support of Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid who was in the eye of a political storm for his remarks on the movie 'The Kashmir Files'.

Lapid, who served as the chairperson of International Film Festival of India or IFFI's international jury, termed "The Kashmir Files" a "vulgar and propaganda" movie in his speech at the award ceremony during the closing night of the nine-day film festival.

However, Sudipto Sen, the lone Indian in the jury board of the IFFI maintained that the remarks made by Lapid were his personal opinion, PTI reported.

Sen's statement came after the other three jury members released a statement on Twitter endorsing Lapid's comments that caused a huge controversy earlier this week.

In the joint statement tweeted by Gotoh, the three jury members said they "stand by" Lapid's statement which he made on behalf of the jury.

"And to clarify, we were not taking a political stance on the film's content. We were making an artistic statement, and it saddens us greatly to see the festival platform being used for politics and subsequent personal attacks on Nadav. That was never the intention of the jury," the statement read.

However, the Twitter account from which Gotoh posted the statement is unverified. Sen's name is also not mentioned in it.

"Now they [three jury members] are not in the country. I am in the country. So I would've been the best person to defend that, but they did not include me. It means it's not the jury board's decision. If it is unanimous jury board's decision, why my name is not in this statement?" Sudipto Sen was quoted as saying by PTI.

The Kashmir Files, written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri, portrays the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from Kashmir following the killings of people from the community by Pakistan-backed terrorists.

In his speech at the closing ceremony of IFFI 2022, Lapid had said he was "disturbed and shocked" to see the film being screened at the film festival.

"All of us were disturbed and shocked by the movie 'The Kashmir Files'. It felt to us like a propaganda and vulgar movie that was inappropriate for an artistic and competitive section of such a prestigious film festival. I feel comfortable to openly share this feeling with you since the spirit of the festival can truly accept critical discussion which is essential for art and life", the filmmaker had said.