Awards shouldn't returned: Raima Sen

Actress Raima Sen on Wednesday opposed writers, scientists and filmakers returning their awards in protest against what they call growing intolerance in the country, and said she would never have done so.

"I don't think awards should be returned. This is stupidity," Raima, daughter of actress Moon Moon Sen and granddaughter of Suchitra Sen, told mediapersons on the sidelines of a programme here.

Raima said an award should never be returned.

"This is not the way I would have done it. Once given, an award should not be returned," she said.

Raima, however, refused to be drawn further into issues like the beef controversy and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Sadhvi Prachi calling actor Shah Rukh Khan a "Pakistani agent".

"I have no comments on these issues, I don't want to be drawn into a controversy," said the actress at the launch of the hotel Aauris.

A host of well-known writers, filmmakers, scientists and historians have announced the return of awards and honours as a mark of protest against recent events like the lynching of a Muslim man in Dadri of Uttar Pradesh over beef, the murder of Kannada rationalist scholar M.M. Kalburgi, and the police "raid" in Delhi's Kerala House.