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Goa puts IFFI on notice
BJP Govt in Goa has decided to stage the next edition of the film festival without Centre's assistance, reports Saibal Chatterjee.
Certain sections of the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF), which organises the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), had seen it coming. Politics has reared its ugly head and the BJP-led Manohar Parrikar government in Goa has decided to stage the next edition of the annual event without the assistance of the Centre.
There is, however, a catch here: If the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, DFF's parent body, is indeed cold-shouldered by the Goa government, the state could lose the right to hold IFFI. That now seems a certainty with the government in Panaji having inserted a tender notice in newspapers calling for bids from professional event managers with the wherewithal to conduct an international film festival.
The tender notice itself is rather curiously worded. While the heading christens the proposed event "Goa International Film Festival", which is what it will actually become if the state government snaps its ties with DFF, in the body of the text, it is referred to as the "International Film Festival of India".
Going by fine print of the tender notice, the state government has constituted a body called the Entertainment Society of Goa and vested in it all powers to take decisions regarding the mounting and staging of the international film festival in November-December this year. Says the notice: "We are looking for engaging a professional agency which would ensure smooth operation of all technical, organizational and logistical aspects of the festival." No mention of DFF anywhere!
The notice lays down several prerequisites for the prospective festival management agency. "The agency," it says, "will have solid experience in cinema operations, outdoor stages, indoor and outdoor sound systems, connectivity and delivery of internet services, electrical systems and supplies."
The notice, signed by the Chief Executive Officer of the Entertainment Society of Goa, obviously supersedes the powers of the Director, DFF, vis-à-vis the conduct of the film festival. The question is: can the Goa government actually pull off the event at such short notice? The last date for receiving bids is July 30. The process of screening and short-listing bidders is bound to take a month at the very least.
So the business end of the festival - sourcing films and sending out invitations to delegates from around the world - will not begin until the first week of September. That would leave the organizers well under three months to make a success of the Goa International Film Festival.
The DFF, on its part, has already set in motion the process of acquiring films and identifying people for the competition jury. The chances are that the organization will go ahead with its preparations and hold IFFI 2004 in New Delhi itself if it is eased out of Goa. The information and broadcasting ministry is understood to have already taken a decision to that effect.
Up ahead is a situation that could get rather messy. With the Central government withdrawing all its support, the Goa film festival organizers would be left fending for themselves. Worse still, they might find themselves competing with IFFI, which could be held around the same time of the year, if not in 2004, certainly from 2005 onwards. In that event, the politics of film festivals will only get the better of the celebration of cinema. Sad but true!
