Mumbai: “I cannot believe this is happening,” were the opening lines of Mumbai Film Festival director Srinivasan Narayanan’s speech at the announcement of the festival at a suburban five-star hotel on Wednesday. “I have to pinch myself to believe that this is real. Fifteen days ago we prepared a press release to declare that the festival wouldn’t be happening this year.” At this point a visibly emotional Srinivasan was too overwhelmed for words. Given the battles the festival has had to fight this year, Srinivasan’s reaction was not surprising.
The 16th edition of the film festival kick-starts on October 14 and will go on till October 21. Over eight days they will be screening more than 185 films from over 65 countries. And alongside the usual panel discussions and seminars, there will also be master-class sessions by internationally acclaimed cinematographer Christopher Doyle and director-writer Mahamat Saleh Haroun. This year the Lifetime Achievement Award will be conferred to Helen and celebrated French actress Catherine Deneuve. The main venue of the festival will be PVR Cinemas, while Liberty Cinema will be the satellite venue.
For the longest time it seemed that the city’s oldest film festival organised by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Images wouldn’t be able to keep its date this year, owing to a paucity of funds. As word got around and reality began to sink in, help started to pour in from a few quarters. Several bigwigs of the film fraternity such as Aamir Khan, Raju Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Anurag Kashyap, Farhan Akhtar to name a few, pitched in with sizeable contributions. From the corporate world, Anand Mahindra was a major contributor, as Amit Khanna, trustee of Mami mentioned. “He had even helped us in our early days when we were struggling with funds. And he helped us now.”
Amit continued, “In the early stages of the festival, there was active cooperation from the film fraternity. We had people like Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, and Mr Bachchan supporting us. Then over the years it fizzled out. People got preoccupied by other things, lost their zeal for the festival. It was disheartening given that this festival has been hailed among the top 10 film festivals of the world by a number of international publications. We reached out to several corporates for help and finally young film lovers came forward.” The festival may be back on track but it is still short of funds. “We are still 2.25 crores short. Please contribute, so we do not have to compromise. All donations are tax exempt,” said Srinivasan at the press conference.
Farhan Akhtar, who was present on the occasion, rued how everyone took the festival for granted. “I’ll say something that applies to relationships usually: You really don’t know what you have until it’s gone. I plead guilty to being very relaxed about it. I never stopped to think how the festival continued to happen year after year and I thought it would sustain itself. This was a much-needed wakeup call. And now I am here to be actively involved for years to come,” he said. Speaking of what the festival has to offer this year, Anurag Kashyap said, “The selection is outstanding. One of the highlights will be a retrospective of Arab cinema where around 25 films will be screened. Besides that, among many more, there is Xavier Dolan’s Mommy, Ken Loach’s Jimmy’s Hall and Richard Linklater’s Boyhood that made me feel so small as a filmmaker. Mumbai is the centre of the film industry and this festival needs to go on.”
Also present on the occasion were Kiran Rao, Vikramaditya Motwane, Shakun Batra and Anupama Chopra. Vikramaditya shared memories of growing up watching films at the festival. “I remember watching Dr Strangelove and Pyasa sitting in the NCPA in 1998. It has grown tremendously. Seeing people breaking down doors to watch such films is an emotional moment,” he said. Resounding the plea for more contributions, Kiran added, “The festival is back where it belongs. It is our responsibility now.”
Towards the end, the poster of the festival was unveiled. It aptly features a phoenix made up of famous names from Bollywood who helped revive it. The dignitaries signed off with the assurance of proper prior planning so that the festival is not plagued with shortage of funds in the future.
Highlights of the Mumbai Film Festival
The Mumbai Film Mart (October 15-17) will focus on remake rights of foreign films in India. The first Remake Market initiated by Unifrance and LaFabrique will be held on Oct 15 and 16.
Dimensions Mumbai competition jury comprises Gauri Shinde, Satish Kaushik, Homi Adajania, Huma Qureshi and Rajeev Masand
Master class by Christopher Doyle and Mahamat Saleh Haroun
Retrospective of Arab cinema
Films to watch out for:
Mommy – Xavier Dolan
Mr. Turner – Mike Leigh
Jimmy’s Hall – Ken Loach
Boyhood – Richard Linklater
One On One – Kim Ki Duk
