As Cinefan – the annual festival of Asian cinema held in Delhi (the 6th edition of which will be inaugurated today at the Siri Fort auditorium) gathers momentum with every passing year, the old adage of ‘nothing except change is permanent’ gains ground. As reams are written about the number of participating films (90); Arabesque - the focus section of films from Arab countries; the famed Makhmalbafs’ family which will be showcasing its films; the Guru Dutt retrospective, and critics debate upon which ones will be the best bets to watch, one aspect remains overshadowed.
The festival hitherto to be referred as Osian’s Cinefan will not only be marketed more aggressively but also will see gradual change wrought from within. It’s inevitable. For its parent body, Cinemaya – The Asian Film Quarterly with Aruna Vasudev at its helm, has been acquired by Osian’s – Connoisseurs of Art headed by Neville Tuli. On the face of it, it’s a win, win situation all round. Cinemaya and Cinefan get more money – Osian gets a rooted well-known brand to take off in Delhi.
But economics has a curious way of catching up on unsuspecting souls. While Tuli on one level maintains that the only difference lies in the fact that, “Now Cinemaya and Cinefan will have two mothers,” he also acknowledges that Cinemaya needs to reach out to more and more people and that putting “financial value to creativity” is the way of the world today and “will only help build the brand further. The notions of creativity in our country are very different. Infrastructure building has not been the forte of the artist and government has invariably become a patron stepping in to subsidize,” which hasn’t done any one any good.
“After reaching a certain maturity, you need more infrastructural support and maybe a different interpretation of how things work,” he defends. “The idea is to build the film festival from within like a market.” But if that support goes the way of the Cannes film festival (which is essentially nothing but a glorified film market with star power thrown in for glamour) – to take a far-fetched example, then Cinefan is better off as a niche product.
{{/usCountry}}“After reaching a certain maturity, you need more infrastructural support and maybe a different interpretation of how things work,” he defends. “The idea is to build the film festival from within like a market.” But if that support goes the way of the Cannes film festival (which is essentially nothing but a glorified film market with star power thrown in for glamour) – to take a far-fetched example, then Cinefan is better off as a niche product.
{{/usCountry}}“Economics will only support, not dominate in this case,” Tuli adds. “Culture can discipline and develop an alternative value system and we in India still retain that innocence which the West has lost in its quest, while mixing culture and materialism. We can avoid their mistakes. India is in a position to take that risk on a cultural level today.”
Until now, Cinemaya has been brought out as nothing but a labour of love with a limited print run of 2,000 copies but Tuli is committed for a 10,000 print run, which will “perhaps grow to 15,000-20,000 in subsequent years.” He’s also candid about the figures in terms of hard cash: “Rs. 70-80 lakhs for Cinefan and Rs. 45-50 lakhs for Cinemaya.”
The difference is already showing – from the invitations sent out, to the festival catalogue rich with visuals and brought out on sound quality paper, to the on ground events that are bringing in the international star power like Michel Demopoulos – Director of International Thessaloniki Film Festival, Olivier Pére from Cannes, Bianca Taal from Rotterdam Film Festival to name just a few, to the talent campus India – a workshop which will have selected participants interacting with filmmakers. All these have probably been the labour of love mixed with pragmatism.
Maybe some changes are only for the better. Viva la Cinefan.