Herald: What is the way forward for IFFI, now that Goa has been declared as the permanent venue of the film festival?
Raghavendra Singh: Now that Goa has been accorded permanent status obviously there will be additions to the infrastructure. Like for example what happened this time, we had the opening at one place and the screening at another place. All that will become seamless. We can have the inaugural and the screening at the same place. You can have your master class and film secretariat at one place. All this will change by next year. There will be proper infrastructure; all this will synergise. We feel that by next year this will done. The chief minister had said this, but obviously I cannot speak for the Goa government. But what I know is that the infrastructure and the synergy will become better and better as times goes by.
Herald: Are you going to get into more revenue generation?
Singh: We are definitely thinking in terms of making IFFI a more professional body which can self-sustain itself like any other professional film festival, like for example the festival at Cannes. To do that, we intend to have a special purpose vehicle or SPV to take care of this.
Herald: Are you going to push for local involvement?
Singh: Local filmmakers too will be involved. There is a talk of that too. But a lot will depend on the local government. They have to take a decision.
