PLASTINO D’COSTA
Goa made an awful blun der by allowing the International Film Fes tival of India (IFFI) to be per manently held in the State. Prior to 2004 this festival would wonderfully travel to different cities across India, before they chose Goa as its permanent destination. The initial intentions might have been sincere, but after two decades of its existence it is time to seriously debate as to how this IFFI bandwagon has disfigured Goa and hurt Goans the most. By the way, migration of Goans by shun ning the Indian passport and obtaining the Portuguese passport has accelerated since 2004, so that’s some food for thought. Be it Cannes, Venice or Berlin these film festivals lo cations have a disreputable tendency of generating heavy influx of visitors at the fes tival time thereby creating an unequal housing market. Landlords usually favour short term leases over per manent residents driving prices higher on a tempo rary basis. Anything that is designed for short term gain usually never sustains and is bound to fall by the wayside in the long term. Add to that Goa is an unusual case, it has literally allowed anyone but Goan to purchase real estate and easily become landlords, so even those short term gains are kept out of the Goan reach.
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Meanwhile, Goan society compels Goans to focus on creating robust communities by devoting their personal time and energy to build ing them; however, when it comes to monetisation, the rest of the Indians are allowed to have a field day. Something is broken here. Goa was cho sen as the IFFI venue because of its vibrant culture, so they say, but nobody talks of the effort Goans have put over the years in keeping Goa in pristine condition. The effort has not been an easy one; it has included fighting in the courts or protesting against lobbies that are hell bent in destroying Goa for short term gains or fat real estate com missions. Before the IFFI decision was made instead of ring fencing Goans and our inter ests, we presented Goa on a platter for anybody to come and set base and then fiddle with our way of life. This is what happens if we vote for the same politicians thinking that they are the smartest creatures on earth. These days they have made it their business of brokering real estate deals to Bollywood actors who started visiting Goa professionally due to this IFFI.
Buying properties with political backing makes sense to these actors because they are given a package deal, just name the place the politi cian will go all out to change it from No Development Zone or cut trees if you wish to have a glass house in the middle of the forest. When these regulations are abused, Goans have to leave their per sonal work and start protest ing to save Goa’s land for the benefit of the society at large and hardly for personal gains. Why have Bollywood ac tors taken a fancy to Goa? Well, the answer is simple: because of their tunnel vision and fake celebrity status, they have allowed Mumbai to be come a messed up and unliv eable city. Their selfish focus only on themselves, with the least concern for taking care of their surroundings, has ac celerated Mumbai into a gut ter they have become tired of navigating.
Their homes will be palatial with world class fittings and furnishings, but just ten metres outside their homes will be filth lying around, which they will do nothing about. Well many of these actors might argue that they pay exorbitant taxes and it is the government’s responsibility to keep the city tidy and neat. Yes of course, but the govern ment needs to be regularly reprimanded for not doing their work which lately has not been happening because these actors have gone into a silent mode. What is the use of all the money and the influence they have on the so ciety if they cannot speak up. There is a price to be paid for all this silence, the situation outside their palatial homes became so bad that in the recent monsoon season rain water seeped into the home of the angry young man, our teenage years’ hero and nobody even opened their mouth.
What a downfall man! To avoid this downfall, many of these Bollywood ac tors have started looking for second homes and Goa seems to be a preferred choice be cause of its Western way of life, a readymade commu nity based effort in keeping Goa in not exactly mint con dition, but relatively better than Mumbai, with a lesser population, fewer slums and beaches cleaner than Chow patty and Juhu. But if the whole of Bollywood chooses to make Goa their home, it will displace Goans who re main steadfast so far in hold ing the Goan fort. Bollywood does not have a very good record of adding value to the places they live, most of them are self cen tred, and will never be vocal when Goa faces challenges, which these days we face on a monthly basis. They will also bring the paparazzi culture, which they use and abuse by tipping them their location and at the same time accuse them of invading their pri vacy. Many actors already living in Goa never find it worthwhile to speak to Goan influencers or the Goan me dia, instead, they ensure that influencers and media arrive only from Mumbai. So there is nothing they bring to the table that will benefit Goans at large.
What can you expect from an industry that openly encourages nepotism? Years back Goan musicians used to dominate the Bol lywood music industry, no body really became famous because due credit was never given to them, these musi cians actually played the role of music directors but most were projected as musicians only. Fast forward now, Bol lywood is still the dog eat dog world industry, Goans with our decency and good manners can never be part of this activity. If we place a red carpet in welcoming the entire Bollywood clan, they will increase their personal footprint to such an extent that they will put the Goan community on the brink. So that the pressure on our real estate is eased IFFI needs to be made to travel to differ ent places like before, to cit ies in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra, and Kerala especially because their film industries are much more evolved than our nascent Konkani film in dustry. If IFFI goes out of Goa we get time to repair reclaim and heal Goa. (The author is a business consultant.)
