The streets are paved, the greenery spruced up and trimmed,the 43rd International Festival of India is already underway. IFFI has come along way since 2004, where the impetus was more on Bollywood attendees and theactivities outside the theatres. There still are delegates and invitees fromBollywood but the focus has shifted to the films and the segregation of genres.Today, categories like Masterstrokes (renowned world cinema directors),Sketches on Screen (animation films) and others that provide a wider range ofwork for film aficionados.
This is the ninth edition in Goa and Festival DirectorShankar Mohan seems optimistic of the festival’s progress over the last fewyears. “The festival has evolved in several stages and ways and taken on a newavatar. In fact, the Goa CM recently made an announcement about building moretheatres and a convention centre. We should be dreaming big. We should look onIFFI and Goa as the Cannes of the East,” he says, quickly adding, “I don’treally like to compare festivals, but, if a certain festival has set a standardthen we need to look at them and be the best or go beyond that.”
As far as the promotion of IFFI locally goes and theevolution of the state as not just a festival venue but a film hub, Mr Mohan isof the opinion that the local government needs to take up the mantle ofspearheading the movement and setting up film institutions “ educational and ,but “any assistance or guidance that is required from our side is always there.Everything happens in a partnership and the support will always be there. It’snot mandatory though, that the venue of a film festival needs to have suchfacilities.”
Apart from the division of films in different genres, aimedat targeting different sections of passionate film-makers and fans like, thefestival has also seen an increase in films in a digital format, a move that MrMohan is quick to laud. “It was a slow process that was happening for a fewyears, but we noticed last year that many films that we wanted to showcase weredone on a digital platform. So we realised that we needed to raise ourstandards, we needed to accept the fact that technology was rapidly developing.We needed to either catch up with it or be left behind. Digital is more viablein terms of production, for filmmakers. If you look at the last festival, theratio was 45-55 in favour of 35mm films, but this year, it’s 60% digital. Thepolyester films will always be around, there are a few aspects that digitalhasn’t managed to cover yet, but with the way things are going, I’m sure thatthe digital format will be able to combat things like resolution. The oneadvantage of polyester films is that it can be archived and stored for acentury.”
IFFI seems to be moving forward, in terms of film formatsand the quality and variety of films on display. Now that the DFF has done itsjob, it’s up to the local organisations to pick up the pace, build on themomentum and look to deliver a brilliant festival over the next few years.
