This year, Goan film lovers will have to live with the fact that not a single film
made in the state language Konkani has made it to the final list of the Indian
Panorama section. Out of 26 films in the feature film section of the Indian
Panorama, Marathi and Malayalam are leading in numbers with 7 films each.
The reason is quite surprising and disappointing. According to A K Bir, head
of jury of the feature film section of the Indian Panorama, not a single Konkani
film participated even in the selection process. Popular filmmaker Dnyanesh
Moghe says, “Till the time some financial support from the government was
available, that was until last year, people were making films. Filmmakers could
recover at least 50% of the money invested in the film. Now, the support
has stopped. There is no guarantee of recovering the money. Also, there are
limited producers in Goa who are willing to invest, that too in not more than 1 or 2
films. It is sad but it is the fact.” Goan filmmaker Rajendra Talak,
whose Marathi film ‘A Rainy Day’ is one of the films shortlisted in the Indian
Panorama section, asks the audience not to expect too much of Konkani
cinema immediately. Talak says, “Every alternate year, we have been winning
a National Award for our Konkani films. In another short span, we will get
more. The festival director has started a separate Goan section at IFFI this year,
in which we have one Konkani film. At this stage, we should be happy with
the fact that at least some activities are happening. More filmmakers are coming
forward… short films are happening. As far as Marathi cinema is concerned, it
has a history of making some brilliant
films which have even competed at the
Oscars. The Maharashtra government
gives up to 40 lakhs in funding for
certain film projects. They produce
about 120-140 films a year which is
almost 75% of the number of films
Bollywood makes. Here in Goa, we do
not have any such support. The only
other source of investment, corporate
houses, are limited in number and
unwilling to pump in huge sum of
money in multiple film projects. We
Goans need to make more films in
Konkani and push the numbers to the
higher side.”
