IFFI 2017: I&B ministry hands over charge of organising 48th edition of fest to NFDC

Two months before its 48th edition is scheduled to kick off in Goa, the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) is undergoing a change of guard. [caption id=“attachment_3061158” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Smriti Irani. File image.[/caption] A  Hindustan Times​ report stated that the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has handed over IFFI’s charge to the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC). Previously, the Directorate of Film Festivals operated the event. The same report states that NFDC will sign a memorandum with the I&B Ministry, charting out its plan for the nine-day festival. “There were too many complaints and glitches during the past few editions of IFFI. Complaints ranged from logistical problems to selection of films. But NFDC has barely two months to go, so we will have to see how the changes augur for the festival,” a filmmaker, on condition of anonymity, told HT.  The Information and Broadcasting Ministry today constituted a 40-member ‘preview committee’ with filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri as its convener to select movies for the international film festival at Goa. Other members of the new committee include Agnihotri’s wife and actress Pallavi Joshi, author and Padma Shri-awardee Narendra Kohli and actress Hrishitaa Bhatt, an official statement said. The move came after the Information and Broadcasting Ministry recently postponed a meeting of the previous preview committee comprising around 20 members who were nominated when M Venkaiah Naidu was the information and broadcasting minister. Film editor Aarti Bajaj, film critic and screenwriter Khalid Mohamed, and film director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury are among the other members of the newly-constituted committee. The International Film Festival of India (IFFI) will be held in Goa from 20 to 28 November. “The (dissolved) committee was cleared by M Venkaiah Naidu in second week of July. The process was already started and we have seen 150 films so far. We don’t know whether they will be seen again or not,” a member of the dissolved committee said. Film critic Saibal Chatterjee is the only member of the earlier committee who has been been retained in the new committee, the member, who wished not to be named, said. Vivek Agnihotri told PTI over phone, “I am very passionate about such film festivals. I and all the members will try and do a good job. I think what Smriti Irani ji is trying to do is bring in more professionals. All of us want one thing - the film industry should grow and these are small steps.” He said that he is currently in the US and was not aware that his wife Pallavi was also a part of the committee. Other members of the committee include Padma Shri-awardee Naresh Chander Lal, actor Abhimanyu Singh, journalist Bhawana Somaaya, South film actress Jeevitha Rajasekhar and Gautami Tadimalla, ‘Dangal’ film director Nitesh Tiwari, and ‘Airlift’ director Raja Krishna Menon, documentary maker Siddharth Kak, and producer Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s sister Bela Segal. Paediatrician-cum-movie director Santwana Bordoloi, Noida-based filmmaker Bhaskar Hazarika, documentary filmmakers from the northeast Dominic Megam Sangma, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) Member Secretary Sachchidanand Joshi, Malayalam film actress Parvathi Menon, and film director Sangee Dorjee Thongdok are also selected in the new committee. Those members who have been dropped included Rekha Gupta, a prominent BJP member and a member linked to Sanskar Bharti Praveen Arya, a former member said, on condition of anonymity. Last week, the I and B Ministry had constituted the steering committee and the technical committee for the IFFI. Filmmaker Jahnu Barua was appointed as the convener of the new 13-member steering committee, while filmmaker and screenwriter Nagesh Kukunoor was made the head of the 12- member technical committee.​​ With inputs from PTI