For Damodar Naik, or Damu as he is popularly known, this is his first film festival as vice chairperson, Entertainment Society of Goa. He was appointed to the post in June this year and emerging from the shadow of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar has proved to be a little difficult for him though he is trying to do his best.
He spoke to Herald’s Glenn Costa on what he felt was right with IFFI despite the criticism it is attracting
‘There is nothing for Goa at present in IFFI’
Laximikant Shetgaokar is an award-winning Goan filmmaker – arguably the best Goa has. His film ‘Baga Beach’ has become quite a topic of discussion among the film fraternity, film buffs and general public. He spoke to Herald’s Glenn Costa on his experience with IFFI even before it came to Goa and why there is a dire need for a film policy and why he feels that the local film fraternity has been totally sidelined and how the festival till date has done nothing for locals
Herald: You have been a part of lFFI for more than a decade now. What do you have to say about IFFI now and when it first started in Goa?
Shetgaokar: My encounter with IFFI dates back to 2000 when it was held in Delhi. Since then I have been attending it is as a delegate and later on as a filmmaker. In Delhi the festival was in the hands of the bureaucracy and was surrounded on all sides by Babus. It was then organised at the Siri Fort auditorium. Because of this the film fraternity wanted it shifted out of there. But most of the appropriate venues already had film festivals and so there were no takers. Then the BJP government in the State decided to bring it to Goa. Goa to a large extent did not have a film culture even though we used to make short films or documentaries.
Herald: Do you feel the festival has any shortfalls? And if there are what are they?
Shetgaokar: When IFFI came to Goa, the government never thought about how it could be beneficial to Goa. When any large project comes, it has to be thought about how it can be beneficial to locals first. There has to be a policy on films. IFFI is gaining, but there is a huge disconnect between IFFI and locals. Also the budget is increasing and there are no discernable efforts to make it viable. A huge amount has been spent on it (IFFI). The expenditure of any other film festival is not more than Rs 3 to 4 crore. Here we spend around Rs 13 crore. Also unfortunately we have not been able to generate any revenue. There is no system in place to do this (revenue generation). Also IFFI has not given back anything to filmmakers. The basic problem is a lack of film policy. How is it going to be beneficial to film makers? How is it going to benefit locals and get them involved in films? Goa has a huge number of potential artistes. But the government has not thought of how to give a push to these people so that they can be a part of the film culture.
Herald: Do you feel that the local government is doing enough to promote filmmaking, filmmakers in the State?
Shetgaokar: States like Maharashtra and Orissa and even smaller states like Assam have film finance schemes to give financial help to filmmakers. But this is not there in Goa. It was there earlier, but now it is not there anymore. Also other States have State film festivals to promote films. But for the past five years there has been no State level festival in Goa. There is nothing for Goa at present in IFFI. The filmmakers have been sidelined in Goa. It is public money which has been spent. I wish they had a blueprint for Goans. No local filmmakers have been invited for the inaugural of the film festival. It is very unfortunate that this has happened. If smaller filmmakers too had been invited then it would have given them a boost and helped them. Also maybe people from the tiatr line could have been invited. When the inaugural was being held at Kala Academy, one could understand that they were not invited, there were few seats (1,000). But now there are 5,000 seats so why were they not invited?
