The Festival Director, Shri Senthil Rajan and the CEO, ESG, Shri Ameya Abhyankar at the Mid Fest Press Conference, during the 47th International Film Festival of India (IFFI-2016), in Panaji, Goa on November 24, 2016.
Nana Patekar, Mukesh Khanna, Divya Dutta, Rajat Kapoor, Varsha Usgaonkar, Mrinal Kulkarni, Kiran Juneja, Gautam Ghosh, Sudhir Mishra were some of the film personalities, who attended the IFFI 2016 opening ceremony.
The Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Shri. M. Venkaiah Naidu, during the proceedings of the IFFI 2016, announced that Olympic silver medalist, P V Sindhu had clinched her maiden Super Series Premier title, in the final of the China Open badminton tournament on Sunday.
S P Balasubrahmanyam, after receiving the Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the Year 2016, for his contribution to Indian cinema sang lines from the song “Vande Mataram”, for which the audience stood up in respect. He also hummed his popular song from the 1981 film, Ek Duje Ke Liye, “Tere Mere Beech Mein…”
The celebrated director, Ramesh Sippy, who was the Chief Guest for the opening ceremony of IFFI 2016, in his speech, repeatedly said IIFA (International Indian Film Academy) instead of IFFI. He was also missing from the lighting of the traditional lamp ceremony.
Alertness on the part of fire fighters stationed at Kala Academy helped staving off a fire that broke due to short circuit early Tuesday morning. Sources said that the staff on duty heard a crackling sound from the DG room. Firemen, led by station fire officer Dilip Bicholkar, rushed to the spot and put out the flames with CO2 spray. The day’s schedule wasn’t hampered. A loss worth 10,000 has been estimated.
After threatening for several years to act against delegates who book shows indiscriminately and don’t turn up for screenings, IFFI authorities have finally begun holding them accountable from this year. Cards of all delegates are being screened before entering the theatres. Delegates have become so conscious of being tracked that several are turning up to get tickets cancelled when they know they will not be able to attend a show.
Several events scheduled to be held at IFFI 2016 were cancelled at the last minute, dampening the enthusiasm of delegates who were looking forward to attending them. Kunal Goswami was to inaugurate the retrospective section dedicated to his father, Manoj Kumar, but the event was cancelled at the 11th hour. The “In Conversation” session with filmmaker Shoojit Sircar of Piku & Madras Cafe fame was also scrapped. The reasons were not known.
