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Rajkumar or Kasaravalli? IFFI catalogue not too sure (IFFI DIARY)
Panaji, Nov 27 The main catalogue of the 37th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) is a true measure of how mishap prone the event has been -- the photograph on the page devoted to late Kannada thespian Rajkumar, to whom IFFI is paying a special homage, is of another Kannada great, Girish Kasaravalli!
   

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Kasaravalli is not only alive and kicking, he is also due to arrive in Panaji to present his latest film "Nayi Neralu". Apart from the red faces that this fiasco has left behind, it
also goes to show how little the people running the show here know about south Indian cinema.

CEO of Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG), which produced the catalogue, issued a correction in the IFFI daily, but the damage has already been done. Unfortunately,
ESG, a nodal body set up by the Goa government to turn the state into an entertainment hub, is beset by a lack of vision.

It has reduced the ongoing festival to a complete mess for both delegates and journalists and seems bent upon sullying the fair name of Goa as well. The bad publicity that
this beautiful state is attracting as a result of the ESG's mismanagement certainly cannot boost either inbound tourism or the cause of cinema in the long run.

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Bips makes a mark

It is well-known that big Bollywood stars usually stay away from IFFI, although organisers would love nothing better than playing footsie with them. A couple of days ago,
Bipasha Basu put in an appearance at a press conference that followed the Indian Panorama screening of Madhur Bhandarkar's "Corporate".

She also arrived well before the start of the press conference, something that IFFI regulars do not expect from Mumbai stars. Bips had reason to be happy and on her best behaviour - she has two films in IFFI ("Corporate" and "Omkara") and "Dhoom 2" is out in the multiplexes. The sun is shining on her at the moment and she is making the
most of the opportunity.

Earlier the same day, Manisha Koirala, now in the midst of protracted fadeout, participated in a Master class event featuring the Oscar-winning filmmaker Jane Campion. She was later spotted at a cruise lunch hosted by the cultural counsellor of the French embassy in India, Philippe Martinet.

Among the other stars - if you can call them that -- who have so far been paraded across the festival venue are Pravin Dabas and Murli Sharma. That certainly isn't what you would call a hot and happening line-up!

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A step up for Anurag

On the sidelines of IFFI, UTV's Ronnie Screwvala and director Anurag Basu chose a muggy Sunday afternoon and the Panaji Kala Academy's open-air amphitheatre to
unveil their next film "Metro".

The jam-packed press conference was attended by three of the film's stars - Shilpa Shetty, Shiney Ahuja and Kangana Ranaut. Konkona Sensharma and Kay Kay Menon are also in the cast. The stars arrived fashionably late, but the glamour-struck media sweated it out and stayed on to get their sound bytes.

They did get what they were looking for, and not all of it was a wasted effort. Shilpa described "Metro", scheduled for release in February next year, as a realistic film with a strong commercial foundation. Anurag Basu, whose last film "Gangster" was a sleeper hit, has obviously moved on to bigger things professionally - he has made a career leap from the Mahesh Bhatt camp to UTV Motion Pictures.

"Metro," he said, "is essentially about a celebration of life. It is about the little joys that we often fail to make the most of in our pursuit of bigger goals."

IANS