Times of India | 2 weeks ago | 20-11-2022 | 04:55 am
Away from New Delhi’s blue winters and red tape, when the International Film Festival of India (Iffi) landed in Goa for the first time in 2004, the coastal state appeared to be just the change the festival needed.It was Manohar Parrikar’s pet project. The former chief minister relentlessly pursued his request with former Union minister S Jaipal Reddy and ensured that the festival had a new home.“Iffi would turn Goa into Cannes, boost tourism,” was Parrikar’s common refrain, adding that it will be like the Cannes Film Festival, but with a Goan flavour. He felt Iffi could expand Goa’s presence on the world map for a different purpose as well.Even the festival dates were advanced from the original November 29 to December 9 to avoid clashing with the feast of St Francis Xavier. There was a Rs 100-crore investment to build infrastructure like roads, under Parrikar’s personal and round-the-clock supervision.November 2023 will see Iffi’s 20th edition in Goa. But some filmmakers, and those closely associated with the organisation of the festival in the past, feel that its handling needs to be rethought along the lines of Parrikar’s vision.Excessive political and bureaucratic interference has caught up with Iffi’s management in its journey from the Capital to Goa, says multiple National Award-winning filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan.“While shifting the festival to Goa, it was announced that Iffi in Goa would be made to match Cannes, but alas, efforts have not been made to build it to international standards,” says Adoor. “Despite having gone through six decades of existence, it cannot claim a position amongst any of the significant world festivals.”Adoor says that festival films and its culture are a different ball game altogether, while Iffi continues to be in the hands of bureaucrats ‘who have no knowledge or commitment to the cause of cinema’.“Presently, Iffi is run like an event where politicians and occasionally stars make their obligatory appearance and the opportunity is used to dole out lifetime achievement awards to leading stars who are in no way connected with festival films or its culture,” says the filmmaker.A long-serving former member of the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) — the state vehicle created for organisation of Iffi — recollects Parrikar’s plans to eventually have an autonomous body run Iffi.“Parrikar wanted the directorate of film festivals (DFF) to do the hand-holding only for the first couple of years in Goa. But now the ESG is being fully run by politicians and political workers. Under Digambar Kamat as CM, he ensured that DFF set up an office in Goa. But today the office only exists in structure and all strings are pulled from Delhi. Foreign delegates coming to Iffi are almost as good as nil today,” says the member.Iffi was to be a platform for the Indian film industry to showcase its “products” and also promote Goa as a tourism destination.Filmmaker Bardroy Barretto, whose Konkani film ‘Nachom-ia Kumpasar’ won a National Award, feels efforts have not been made to develop a film culture within Goa to create the right atmosphere for Iffi.“Iffi has a brand value as a festival and it is one of the better film festivals,” says Barretto. “They wanted to take advantage of brand Goa as a destination, which they have done over the years. As a filmmaker, Iffi does give us access to better films. But there is nothing more to it. The Goa government doesn’t look at it as cultural but only as entertainment.”He suggests that instead of leaving auditoriums vacant throughout the year at the ESG complex, they should be given to Goan filmmakers to screen their movies, as theatre releases are not financially feasible for them.“We don’t even need the film finance scheme. If they allow us access to the screening facility it is a win-win situation,” he says.As one film critic who attended Iffi in Goa says, ‘to run an international festival you need faith in world cinema as opposed to Bollywood and Hollywood’.“Some of us have been impressing upon the government that the festival should be made independent of governmental interference and the government’s participation should be limited to yearly grants. We must take lessons from festivals like Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto,” says Adoor.Another former ESG member agrees that the festival should be organised by an autonomous body, as Parrikar had wanted.“The central government is only spending Rs 3-4 crore, the rest almost Rs 20 crore is spent by the Goa government, but it does not have the courage to say that Goa needs more control of the festival,” he says.
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