Blunder in the IFFI brochure

Monday, November 27, 2006
Panaji (UNI): In yet another blunder at International Film Festival of India (IFFI), the photograph of a live actor has appeared in place of veteran Kannada superstar Rajkumar in the homage section of the IFFI brochure.

The brochure circulated to mediapersons on the fourth day of the mega-event here today carried the photograph of reputed actor Girish Kasaravalli in place of the picture of Dr Rajkumar.

Entertainment Society of Goa CEO Nandini Paliwal, in a late night statement, regretted the error which, she said, was an ''inadvertent mistake'' and offered her apoligies.

Entertainment Society of Goa is the nodal agency responsible for running the event.

Meanwhile, the Goa Civic and Consumer Action Network (GOACAN) demanded review of the government decision to make Goa a permanent venue for the International Film Festival of India (IFFI). The NGO had called upon the citizens to push for a stand in the forthcoming Panchayat and Assembly elections.

It had taken a serious view of the insult and disrespect of the national flag and other happenings on the second day of the festival at the INOX Multiplex and the Dinanath Mangeshkar Kala Mandir in the Capital of the Urban Territory.

The current mismanagement of the festival by the Entertainment Society of Goa are symptomatic of the malaise of declaring Goa as the permanent venue of the IFFI in the third year.

''It is very evident that the government of Goa and certain vested interests have shrewdly marketed the festival aspect of this event rather than the serious business of watching, appreciating and critiquing the films,'' the NGO's coordinator Roland Martins said.

The criticism within the film fraternity on the mismanagement and hiccups by the organisers of IFFI are manifestations of the struggle to keep up the farce that Goa is the right location as the permanent venue for IFFI, he stated.

There is a larger agenda behind the decision of making Goa the permanent venue for the film festival, Mr Martins added.

A handful of people stand to benefit from contracts, tenders, agreements, MoUs being generated in the name of IFFI and at the cost of the taxpayer and the common citizen, he said.

The GOACAN coordinator also said that the common citizen has had to pay a heavy price for every effort of the national and international business interests who are trying to change the character of Goa and remodeling it to suit the tourism master plan.

''We are convinced that Goa does not need IFFI as a tamasha for 11 days which is being projected as adding a new dimension to tourism in Goa.'' While the municipalities and the panchayats lacked the basic infrastructure like proper markets, public transport system, good drainage, waste management, adequate public toilets, basic and effective health care system, electricity and water, lakhs of rupees of taxpayers' money is being spent to prop up Goa as a permanent venue for IFFI, he alleged.

Those trying to grab land in the name of SEZs, IT parks, food parks and shipyards are intricately connected to the economic interests of those backing Goa as a permanent venue for IFFI.