The tourism ministry has also been asked to formulate an approach on paper so that the minister may take up these issues with the Prime Minister and the Union Cabinet.Among others at the meeting, Vishal Bharadwaj, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Dibakar Bannerjee, Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Farah Khan, Raj Kumar Hirani and several international directors represented the film fraternity.”Cinema plays an important role in promoting tourism worldwide. The most recent example is the sudden desire among Indian travelers to travel to Spain after seeing the film ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’,” said Sahay.”We can replicate this in India by focusing tourism among international film directors to promote India as a preferred choice of destination for filming.”

‘Don’, the Shahrukh Khan starrer was given monetary compensation in Germany while Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ was compensated by about Rs 2 crore by way of payment for TV spots. Many countries refund the VAT while Canada gives tax credits to film production companies. These and other issues came up during the meeting.

The ministry will also examine in detail issues relating to visas, facilitating site visits, tax reimbursement, etc.

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Experts from tourism industry feel that hosting of IFFI, since 2004 has helped the state to brand itself in the global market.

“IFFI has put Goa prominently on the entertainment and glamour map worldwide, thus helping the tourism industry to a great extent,” Ralph de Sousa, spokesperson for Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) said.

De Souza said that as a permanent festival venue, it rubbed shoulders with other such venues like Cannes and taking Goa as a ‘brand’ to the next level.

Supporting him, tourism director Swapnil Naik said that the branding helps a lot in attracting tourists in the state.

“The festival attracts a large number of national and international delegates, film makers and creative enthusiasts to Goa,” he said adding that since last seven years IFFI has successfully showcased Goa’s vibrant spirit and the many facets of our beautiful state to the global film industry.

The IFFI 2010, which concluded on December 2, showcased 300 films from 61 countries.

Entertainment Society of Goa’s (ESG), CEO, Manoj Srivastava declared that the number of movies screened during ten day long festival was largest since its inception.

“The festival, India’s Cannes, is not just about remarkable films, it’s over 240 hours of entertainment and fun,” he said

“Goa is about fun and entertainment. Its scenic beaches and quaint surroundings create the ideal atmosphere to host an international film festival like IFFI,” he added.

The festival schedule is packed with world premieres, film bazaars, master class series, workshops, director interactions, buyer interactions, music concerts and more.

“As the managing body for IFFI, ESG seeks to further Goa as India’s international entertainment destination,” the CEO said.

Srivastava said that Goa is arguably the best destination to host a film festival of the stature of IFFI hence the state is been declare as permanent venue to host the festival.

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“Extinction II” is made by Spanish documentary filmmaker Fernando Uson Fornies, who won the Rs.500,000 award.

“Niyamgiri, you are still alive”, a docu-drama showcasing the struggle of Niyamgiri’s tribals versus a mighty mining multinational firm, shared the Vasudha award along with another green documentary “Kaippad” in the SFC’s environment section at a formal function at the IFFI complex.

hairman of the UB group Vijay Mallya seen presenting the the " Golden Lamp Tree Award" to Fernando Uson Fornies during the awards ceremony at the Maqueniz Palace on the ninth day of the ongoing 41st International Film Festival of India in Panaji

Chairman of the UB group Vijay Mallya along with Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, DFF director S.M. Khan seen with the winners of the Vasudha Award and the International competition for Short film during the awards ceremony at the Maqueniz Palace on the ninth day of the ongoing 41st IFFI.

Noted bollywood character actor Nana Patekar seen during the press conference addressed by Mira Nair on her film 'Salaam Bombay' at the media centre on the ninth day of the ongoing 41st IFFI.

Noted Konkani film maker Rajendra Talak seen with the cast of his Konkani film 'O Maria' during the Red Carpet welcome soon after his film 'O Maria' was premiered on the ninth day of the ongoing 41st IFFI in Panaji

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]]> http://www.garlicchop.com/iffi-goa/spanish-documentary-wins-golden-lamp-at-iffi-goa-2010/feed/ 0 http://www.garlicchop.com/iffi-goa/vijay-mallya-to-be-chief-guest-at-iffi-2010/ http://www.garlicchop.com/iffi-goa/vijay-mallya-to-be-chief-guest-at-iffi-2010/#comments Mon, 29 Nov 2010 08:33:30 +0000 Phoenix http://www.garlicchop.com/?p=14379 Panaji, Nov 29  International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2010 will have United Breweries Group boss Vijay Mallya visiting on November 30, officials said today.

Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) Chief Executive Officer Manoj Srivastava said that said that Mallya would be the Chief Guest for the award function of Short Film Centre (SFC) on Tuesday.

“SFC concept has clicked very well and it has given a platform for the documentary filmmakers. Presence of a personality like Mallya would give further boost to the concept,” Srivastava told PTI.

UB is a major partner for SFC, showcasing 30 documentaries in its competition sections and lending platform to several other short films during IFFI.

ESG officials said that this is for the first time that Mallya would be visiting IFFI since its shift from Delhi to Goa.

UB’s Kingfisher brand has raked in sponsorship to the tune of Rs 50 lakh for the festival.

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“It is a matter related to the finance ministry and I will take up the issue of taxation with Pranab da (Mukherjee),” Banerjee said.

“Taxation is too much. I must pursue the matter. The film industry has contributed a lot to the country,” the Trinamool Congress leader said.

Chopra earlier said that the Indian film industry would be writing its obituary soon, if it was taxed any further.

Chopra slammed the government for devising a virtually strangulating tax regime, which comprised of a cocktail of taxes, including value added tax (VAT) and stamp duty.

“Why is the government (central) treating us in a step-motherly manner? If these new taxes come, I am sure they will come because they have made up their mind, filmmakers will not be able to make movies anymore,” said Chopra, who has won several awards including the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for lifetime achievement in films.

“India celebrates 100 years of cinema in 2012 and maybe they will be writing the obituary of Indian cinema then,” Chopra said.

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South Indian film legends like Mani Ratnam, veteran film producer Dr D Rama Naidu and Revathy Menon, will also attend the 10-day festival, beginning from November 22.

Director of Film Festival S M Khan also confirmed the presence of renowned singer Ila Arun along with Subhash Ghai, Manisha Koirala, Rima Sen and Raima Sen for the festival.

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The festival will be inaugurated with the Om Puri starrer movie West is West, a movie sequel to East is East (1990).

Khan said that the screening of West is West movie will mark the inaugural of the festival, which has the competition section of international cinema open globally.

The film is on an Indian origin family from Punjab and their younger sibling.

The director feels that the competition would be tough this year as the best movies will be screened for the festival.

“This year films from Canada, America and other European countries will be also screened. The section was earlier open only to the films from Asia, Africa and Latin America,” he stated.

Legendary filmmaker Yash Chopra is said to be the chief guest for the function along with Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee.

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Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG), the nodal agency involved in the organisation of IFFI, in partnership with National Informatics Centre (NIC) today launched e-ticketing service to avoid long pending queues at ticketing counter during the festival.

“Repeatedly we had been receiving several complaints where delegates pointed out that due to unending queues at the ticket counters many were deprived from watching movies. Hence we decided to launch this e-ticketing service to make it ease,” ESG, CEO Manoj Srivastava said.

He said that the service will be a hassle-free process, where delegates can sit at home or hotels and book tickets.

“The initiative is yet another step towards bringing technological advancement and better facilities to delegates at IFFI,” Srivastava stated.

The e-ticketing service will be open to the delegates from November 21 on www.iffigoa.org. The IFFI 2010 will be held from November 23 to December 3.

Briefing about the service, NIC official said that a delegate by using the accreditation ID number and a unique pin number, which will be provided by NIC through mail shortly, can book tickets of one’s choice online.

“Not just booking but ticket cancellation can also be done through the online process. Apart from this the delegate can also select the seats of his choice online,” he stated.

The delegates can produce the printout of the ticket confirmation at the entrance of the theatre to watch movies.

It had been noticed at the past festivals that even after booking tickets, the delegates didn’t turn up and many people were deprived from watching movies.

To avoid such circumstances, NIC has decided that if a delegate in spite of booking tickets didn’t turn up for three consecutive shows then the person will be blocked from ticketing for two days.

So far ESG has received a tremendous response from public. At total of 7148 delegates have registered for IFFI till date, with registrations still on.

During the press conference, Secretary for Information and Publicity Narendra Kumar said that from this year onwards ESG will maintain delegate profile.

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Raju Nayak, one of the senior members on ESG, has moved a proposal to the body, on formation of a young jury on lines with Mumbai Academy of Moving Images (MAMI), a festival held in Mumbai.

The proposal submitted to ESG Chairman Digamber Kamat reads that MAMI initiative of Young Critics was highly appreciated.

Nayak said that ESG can select 12 Goan students and conduct workshop for them on how to judge films, which will be pictured during the upcoming IFFI festival beginning from Nov 23.

“Those student jury will watch Indian Panorama films and write daily reviews in dailies,” Nayak said.

He added saying that the jury can select a film during IFFI and declare them an award which can be called as ‘Young Jury Award.’

Speaking about MAMI, Nayak stated that MAMI for the second year had invited a young critic’s jury. They posted an ad saying that they are in need of college students, representing their college or film institute or university.

Total 90 students had applied for MAMI proposal of which 24 were selected. They were given training through a workshop and later asked to be jury for the 14 selected films in the International Competition category of MAMI.

The member feels that same can be done in case of IFFI.

Nayak said that the ESG can organize a function after IFFI every year to felicitate the director of the film.

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Pointing out to the major corruption in IFFI events, Goa Film Federation, a body comprising State’s filmmakers, today demanded that sections like SFC and T-20 events should be deleted from the film festival.

“SFC and T-20 events should be scraped from the festival for this time. Chief Minister should sign the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Centre for IFFI 2010 only after deleting these two events”, the federation demanded.

The filmmakers have alleged that Entertainment Society of Goa’s (ESG) Chief Executive Officer Manoj Srivastava had inflated the expenses for SFC and T-20 events for the festival.

“As per the information revealed from RTI, ESG has spent Rs 75 lakh just on SFC in 2008, which is almost double than what was approved by the governing body. The body has approved a budget of Rs 36 lakh for the section”, Goa Film Federation, Chairman Arnold D’Costa told reporters today evening.

He alleged that chief minister, who is heading the governing council, is ignoring the entire matter. “Not just Srivastava but the chief minister and other members of the council are equally responsible for the misappropriation”, D’Costa stated.

Member of the Federation and internationally acclaimed director Laxmikant Shetgaonkar questioned why the films which come here with the perspective of looking for a buyer should be given awards of Rs 5 lakh, Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh respectively.

“It’s not a competition. It’s just a section where short film producers show their product and those who are interested in buying take it”, Shetgaonkar said.

The film maker believes that rather then spending such a huge amount on short film centre, ESG needs to provide a platform for the development of film culture in Goa.

“ESG has failed completely to encourage young talent into film industry. Today we don’t find any film maker in Goa. The amount spent on SFC could be used to develop film culture in the state by organizing workshops and various events”, Shetgaonkar said.

The Federation alleged that T-20 section of Indian Cinema is nothing but a gimmick of Srivastava to give contracts of various performances to his friends from entertainment society.

The Federation, which met chief minister last week succeeded in getting the assurance that two of its members would be included in the governing council.

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