Controversies rock Bengaluru International Film Festival

Within a week since its start-studded launch 5 controversies have overshadowed the annual Bengaluru International Film Festival

The 13th Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes) under the Karnataka Chalanchitra Academy which began on May 3 has been rocked by five controversies that have gone too far to make some people protest.

March 3 declared as Vishwa Kannada Cinema Day and that the international film festival will now be held on the same date every year.

To start with, the invitation brochure for the ceremony had only names of politicians as guests with no mention of anyone from the Kannada cinema. The film industry criticized this asking, “is this a political convention or a film festival?”

Then another controversy unfolded when a Savarkar cutout was brought during a dance performance on the stage. Many questioned, why Ambedkar cutouts were not given any prominence.

The next controversy erupted when Producer Rishab Shetty showed displeasure that his film Pedro, which had received global recognition in several international film festivals was not selected for the film festival in his homeland. He criticized this move openly in the media. The producers of two other films also expressed their opposition.

Another issue took place during the screening of the film Devara Kadu, when Prakash Kariyappa, an old man who was watching the film, started shouting in the theatre by calling it an insult to Kannada culture. He was furious at the committee that selected the film and questioned how the Academy choose such a film to be screened publicly. This led to a huge commotion at the theatre.

There was another controversy about the choice of films that are being screened too. There are certain rules involved while selecting films and only those selected by the jury committee are screened at the film festival. However, some producers alleged that the movies sent by the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce were being screened directly at the film festival without going through any jury selection process. The Chamber of Commerce later responded saying that this tradition has been going on for years.

The final controversy was about the goodies given to participants. Usually, at every film festival, participants are given a kit bag with a book on cinema and a film screening schedule for the festival. This year, some participants were displeased with the fact that even after a week they had not gotten the film festival kit. There was a lot of outrage about it on social media too.