Film festival, not a child’s play

The 18th edition of the film festival, a big- budgeted one with Rs 3.35 crore, isn’t a success as the organisers claim it to be. Though the foreign delegates seem to have enjoyed the hospitality and experience, many old timers felt that previous editions of the film festival were far better

The open forum in this edition discussed on relevant topics, there were complaints that not enough time was given for Q & A session that follows discussions. This though was addressed in subsequent days; all throughout; the open forum discussions saw limited audience

The 18th International Children’s Film Festival India (ICFFI) will be news for a long time. Self- dubbed as ‘big budget’ film fest, this seven-day event faltered badly on all possible fronts. It all started with promoting the film fest in the city. If we can go back 45 days, we hardly saw any banners, posters or sign boards promoting the film fest. Sources say that the arrangements for the film fest began only a month before the start of the film festival.

Then there was the grand-gala opening ceremony, one has to admit, it was truly spectacular. The event kick-started with screening of the animation film, ‘Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya’. A total of 200 films were screened in 13 screens across the city. 800 films were registered and out of them 16 were competing for the coveted golden elephant.

Too many PRs spoil the fest: For the smooth conduct of the film fest, Children’s Film Society of India (CFSI) engaged third party services. A PR professional was specially flown in from Mumbai to act as media consultant. The PR duties for the film festival were jointly handled by the CFSI and state owned I & PR department. Sources at I & PR department say that both I & PR department officials and CFSI PR are at loggerheads and aren’t working in close coordination.

What is Bandwidth? The web developers of the film festival forgot an important element for hosting the website-bandwidth. With photographs, movies and other information in the web page, the site has gone down for about an-hour-and-half on November 19. The error message read ‘as you have crossed your band width.’

Open Forum: The huge success of film festival in 1995 was attributed to the Open forum discussions that were an integral part of the film festival. In the subsequent editions of the film fest, open forum was a rage among the people and the discussions saw participation in huge numbers. Though the open forum in this edition discussed relevant topics, there were complaints that not enough time was given for Q & A session that follows discussions. This though was addressed in subsequent days; the open forum discussions saw limited audience all throughout.

There are other venues too: Prasads IMAX is the main venue and it is the hub of the festival, but there are other important venues like Lalitha Kala Thoranam, Indira Priyadarshini Auditorium and Jawahar Bal Bhavan. Sadly the media centre at Prasads concentrated on promoting the activities at the main venue. Obviously the seven-day film and theatre workshop conducted at Jawahar Bala Bhavan for children, by co-founder of Junoon Theatre, Mumbai, Sanjana Kapoor, saw less number of participants. Many blame it on lack of promotion, few even said that they weren’t aware of the workshop.

No stars at the film fest: Stars add glamour and glitz to the film festival. This edition of the film festival had very little glamour whatsoever. Apart from Ranbir Kapoor, who took part in the inaugural function, neither Tollywood nor Bollywood celebrities were spotted at the film fest. Aren’t they invited or did they reject the invite, no one knows the answer.

Who is the chief guest? As the closing ceremony draws nearer, few questions are plaguing every one, who is the chief guest? Will there be any stars at the valedictory? It has been confirmed that Governor will be the chief guest and there is no clarity regarding the other guests who will take part in the function. Finally, will we get to see Amole Gupte? The Chairman of the CFSI was absent from the inaugural function. Will he take part in the valedictory, quashing all the rumours?

Brochures, catalogues and other pamphlets: It is a usual practise at most film festivals that catalogue and synopsis of the films are printed as a book and are distributed at the main venue so that people can pick out the films they want to watch. But, neither on the inaugural day nor on the second day the book was available. Finally on day three, the book showed its face to public.

Cultural fest at Lalitha Kala Thoranam: Starting with the inaugural function, every evening saw cultural activities galore at Lalitha Kala Thoranam. Students of various schools enthralled the audience with their scintillating performances every day. Sadly, the turnout of the audience was less all throughout and all fingers are pointed to lack of publicity.

There are other screens too: Sudha, Shah-Ali Banda; Ranga, Jeedimetla; Eswar, Attapur; High Tech, Madhapur; Shiva Parvathy, Kukatpally; Prashant, Secunderabad; Shivani, Dilsukhnagar; in case you are wondering what these are, they are the other screens across the city screening the films. Apart from just a few screens, the rest saw limited turn out.