The carping at Goa

FREEZE FRAME/ The complaints voiced at the international film festival are baseless

Goa has just hosted the 35th International Film Festival of India (IFFI). I am not amused or astonished with the needless controversy and criticism the festival has attracted. Indians love to put ourselves down.

With its new-found love for showbiz, extended reach and bevy of greenhorn reporters, both the electronic and mainline print media love to fill their space and time with filmi controversies.

So a film festival, especially in picturesque Goa, is a perfect breeding ground for some spicy reportage.

After years of an itinerant existence and after much prodding by the film fraternity it was decided that it was time the government-sponsored Film Utsav be given a permanent location.

Although Goa did not have the infrastructure for holding a film festival, it had everything else "� beautiful sun-kissed beaches, good hotels, a modern yet compact city environment and, above all, a chief minister passionate about creating a great festival venue.

However, even the seemingly unanimous decision to make Goa a permanent home for the IFFI has become a political hot potato in the wake of the change in government at the Centre. Let's hope better sense prevails and Goa is nurtured as a preferred venue not only for the IFFI but for other cultural gatherings.

Most reporters and commentators have some trite and clichéd comments about every film festival "� the selection of films is arbitrary, delegates are not looked after well, the screening facilities are not adequate and so on.

It may be purely co-incidental that the folk who crib the loudest are the ones who turn up at every festival (and party), first looking for free hospitality or to make the 'right' intellectual statement.

One can only be empathetic towards such ignoramuses who live in a time warp. On the other side are some of the fringe players "�film wannabes, part-time critics and party hoppers at all such gatherings. Surprisingly Bollywood, which was at one time dismissive of festivals, is beginning to participate in them, if not actually revel in them.

If the festival stays in Goa and bureaucratic interference is kept to the minimum, the IFFI will emerge as an important event in the global film calendar.

To expect it to become a Cannes or Berlin is far fetched, but in the years to come it could rank a amongst the top 10 film festivals.

Coming to two specific complaints "� the poor quality of films and the lacklustre market "� one needs to understand some basics. All film festivals are governed by the rules of the International Film Producers Organisation (FIAPP), which draws up an annual calendar.

Major festivals like Cannes and other competitive festivals insist that films not shown at any other festival alone may be entered. This means most major films try to pitch their films at one of the six major festivals.

The biggest market for films is undoubtedly the US and they are more concerned with Oscars and other American events like the LA Screenings, the American Film Market and lately the Sundance Film Festival.

Quite rightly in the last few years, Indian film festivals, including the IFFI, have started focusing on Asian cinema. As our markets mature, it will be difficult to ignore India .

After all, where do you find a billion plus film loving people, a growing economy and virtually no restrictions on exporting and importing films? Meanwhile, what we need to do is curate our festivals better and use industry contacts to attract some more international attention.

This brings us to the second lament. Why is it that our film markets don't attract buyers? It's quite simple. The south Asian diaspora has always presented a ready-made market for our films abroad. Our producers and distributors have been content with selling their product in the traditional market.

The National Film Development Corporation and other government initiatives have been successful only where state monopolies exist "� in the former Soviet Union, China and so on. If we have to break into newer markets, we must actively promote our films abroad and not hope to get buyers to come to India.

At best we will get other festival directors who come hunting for Indian films for their festivals or the occasional buyer of esoteric films. Yes, of late there have been some buyers for TV and home video rights, but not enough.

Similarly most of our non -Hollywood imports are done via deals struck at international film markets at Cannes and Los Angeles. I find nothing wrong in this. As long as our film exports keep on climbing "� which they are "� it doesn't make a difference whether we sell them in India or abroad.

Hearteningly, besides the IFFI, film festivals in Kolkata, Mumbai, Trivandrum and Delhi which are largely independently run are also emerging as popular annual events, both nationally as well as internationally.

Given that India is the largest producers of movies and people at large are great film buffs, this seems logical. However given the rather aseptic cultural environment of earlier years, it took the economic opening up of India and the Indian entertainment industry attracting global attention to realise the importance of film festivals and markets.

I see no reason India should not host at least one major film festival every month, given that countries like France and the US have hundreds each year.

The more we expose our film makers and film goers to varying kinds of cinema the more life-blood we will provide to the art form and the business.

Party poopers may continue to rave and rant!

Amit Khanna is chairman of Reliance Entertainment. The views expressed here are his own