Another edition of the International Film Festival of India will begin today, bringing along a distinct feeling of deja vu as it opens. For the third time since the festival was shifted to Goa, Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan will be inaugurating it. He’s done it twice before, albeit at different venues – Panjim’s Kala Academy, Margao’s Ravindra Bhavan and now the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee stadium, a sports stadium that has conveniently turned into a multipurpose venue ever since it was constructed and thrown open. And, of course, as has almost always happened in the past, a tinge of controversy.
IFFI, that found a home in Goa after having travelled across the country, is yet to find a permanent structure from where to showcase itself and still relies on the infrastructure that was hurriedly put up in 2004 for the first festival in the State. Well, there’s one change this year, and the National Film Development Corporation, that hosts the Film Bazaar annually, has been drafted into the organisation team. Hopefully, there can be expected a little change in the days to come, even as the role that Entertainment Society of Goa plays may be diminished.
After 13 years in the State, the festival has seen little growth, be in terms of infrastructure or even its programming. The promised convention centre is now proposed to be ready for the 50th edition of the festival in 2019, that is two years from now. The only growth it is seeing is in the number of delegates that register for the festival, but few of these are noted personalities of the film world, who come down on their own without being invited. For that matter, even Bollywood ignores the festival, with the only stars that turn up being for the opening and closing ceremonies or when they are specially invited for the festival.
This year, could the sprinkling of Bollywood stars at the festival be even less? For what’s IFFI without a little controversy? There’s always been some amount of it and this time the twist in the tale came even before the festival could start, when two films selected for the Indian Panorama section were dropped by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, forcing the jury members to quit in protest and now, veteran actor Shabana Azmi has called upon the film fraternity to boycott the festival protesting the threats to filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali and actor Deepika Padukone for the movie ‘Padmavati’, and the silence from the I&B ministry over this. The film is facing protests by Rajput groups and has even been sent back to the makers by the Central Board of Film Certification as the application was incomplete.
Goa appears to have benefited little from IFFI, whether economically or culturally. Except for some increased business in hotels, restaurants, transporters, entertainers, decorators during the festival days, the contribution from the festival to the State has been minimal. The boast of making IFFI another ‘Cannes’, or even better than it, is far from being made good. As another IFFI opens, a little bit of introspection from the host may be in line so that the takeaway from the festival increases in the coming years.
Goa’s isolation from the film industry – it is spoken of in the same sentence as movies only at this time of the year – has not allowed it to even leverage the permanent IFFI tag to any benefit, not even brand recognition in the film festival world. The festival will always be the International Film Festival of India, not the Goa film festival.
