Confusion continued at the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes) on Monday owing to rescheduling of many film screenings at the last minute. At several screens, the audience and volunteers got into verbal spats, with some almost coming to blows.
Cine-goers were seen complaining of “high-handedness” of the volunteers and even alleged that they were manhandled.
Rajkumar, who stood in line for the Iranian film Bomb: A Love Story for about an hour, was upset that it was rescheduled at the last minute. A tiff broke out with volunteers, who expressed their helplessness over the rescheduling. Mr. Rajkumar complained that the volunteers pushed back the audience in the line and there were senior citizens who could have been hurt.
Film-maker M.S. Satyu and other film-makers were not let into the theatre even though they had passes that provide a separate access to the theatre. Journalist Dinesh Amin Mattu alleged that the volunteers were rude to the audience and were often announcing a full house even though seats were empty inside.
However, the volunteers had a different story to tell. Krishnan, a volunteer, said the audience often jumped queues and tried to barge into the theatres making their task difficult.
Another volunteer said people resorted to ingenious ways to get into the theatres — not vacating their seats after the show is over and holding on to those seats for the next show, which would have long queues outside. Audiences also made their way into the theatre through the exit doors, forcing volunteers to be posted at the exit gates as well, they said.
Packed houses
Organisers had expected the crowds to wane from Monday, but that was not the case. People continued to throng the venue in large numbers. Many skipped the weekend fearing large crowds and started attending the festival from Monday.
Most films ran to packed houses. Chinese film A Land Imagined, Thailand film Manta Ray, Kazakhstan film Ayka, Polish film Cold War, and Japanese film Shoplifters, another Chinese film Ash is Purest White and Iranian film Bomb, A love Story saw serpentine queues. Kannada films The Villain and Humble Politician Nograj also drew crowds.
Books released
Three books were released at BIFFes on Monday: ‘Life in metaphors: Portraits of Girish Kasaravalli’ by O.P. Srivastava, ‘Kannada Talkies: 75 years’, a translation of national award-winning Kannada work Cinemayana by Dr. Puttaswamy, and ‘Random Reflections: A Kaleidoscopic Musings on Kannada Cinema’ authored by Muralidhara Khajane, senior assistant editor, The Hindu, and senior journalist Vishwanath Subramanya.
N. Vidyashankar, artistic director, BIFFes, said two books — Kannada Talkies in 75 years and Random Reflections — present a bird’s eye view of Kannada cinema from its inception to today and beyond. “Puttaswamy’s book traces the cultural evolution of Kannada cinema, and Random Reflections looks at the larger picture, including the business part of it, and examines what could be its future,” he said. Senior critic Aruna Vasudev said she was happy to see scholarly works on Kannada cinema in English as it was very rare for the wider national audience to be informed of the cinema in languages apart from Hindi and hoped the two books would fill such a gap.
India Post also released a special First Day Cover to mark the eleventh edition of BIFFes on Monday.