Two filmmakers blow up at directorate of film festivals

PANAJI: Two prominent filmmakers Sumitra Bhave and P Sheshadri, a national award winner, lashed out at the directorate of film festivals (DFF) on Monday for using their films chosen for the Indian Panorama section for screenings at other international film festivals without inviting or informing the makers.
Sheshadri was fuming at being asked to pay 10,000 to enter the National Film Development Corporation's Film Bazaar organized every year parallel to the 44th International Film Festival of India (Iffi) in Panaji.Multiple-national-award-winning filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, who has also served as jury at Iffi, was stopped and questioned by security guards when entering the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) complex. He was allowed in after some fans intervened and reprimanded the guards.
"The marketing and businessmen are at the Film Bazaar at one venue when my film is being screened at the festival in the Indian Panorama section. What is the use? And my producer and I cannot enter the Film Bazaar until we pay Rs 10,000. It is my request to the DFF that films chosen for the Indian Panorama section be also screened at the Film Bazaar. There should be some link between DFF and NFDC," P Sheshadri said, whose film Bharath Stores is the fifth one to be chosen for screening at the Indian Panorama section. His producer Basanth Kumar Patil, who was also asked to pay to enter the Film Bazaar, has won 12 national awards.
Sumitra Bhave, whose film Astu starring Mohan Agashe and co-directed by Sunil Sukhthankar is also being screened in the Indian Panorama section, said, "DFF sends Indian Panorama films to international film festivals and we do not even know where the film has travelled. I hear from others that they watched my film in Dubai or Cairo. We do not expect an invitation, but at least inform us where the films are travelling."
Sheshadri said that short films and documentaries are being slotted together for screening and viewers interested in one of the two are forced to sit through both . "How does one expect the audience to sit through four hours and have the same kind of interest in watching the film? You have to watch the other whether you like it or not. I would like to ask the DFF to slot films independently," Sheshadri said, using the platform of a media interaction arranged by the DFF itself.
Adoor Gopalakrishnan, however, when asked about being stopped by security guards, "It is their duty and I have no hassles about being checked for security reasons. The festival organizers have given me a guest card for identification, which is different from a delegate."