Big banners avoid festivals fearing failure: Chatterjee

Panaji, Nov 25: The common perception that films premiered in festivals don`t fare well afterwards, seems to have kept off big Indian banners from premiering their movies in events like the International Film Festival of India. "Lot of films meant for commercial release can be sent here but there is a superstition that they will not do well afterwards," Saibal Chatterjee, noted film critic and member on the selection committee for IFFI`s India Premier section, told reporters.

The ten-day festival which kicked off on the Mandovi river bank here on November 22 registered thin Bollywood presence and was bereft of a big premier. Subhash Ghai`s Salman-Katrina starrer `Yuvvraaj`, which released this Friday, stayed away from the Indian Premier section. ‘Yuvvraaj’ is a big banner film and was not interested in premiering for IFFI. They don`t tend to gain with festival premiers," Chatterjee said. Big budget filmmakers, probably, don`t find it worth to premier their film in IFFI, he said adding "if it was in the festival like Cannes or Toronto, they might do it." "But for regional and smaller filmmakers, getting their film premiered in IFFI is a prestige. This is a big platform for them," the film critic said. A team of film critics and professionals had selected seven out of 20 films, for the Indian Premier section, which was specially carved out for IFFI 2008. However it is now left with three Hindi films, one Konkani, a Marathi and a multilingual flick. Bobby Bedi`s `Stoneman`, a Hindi movie on a serial killer, withdrew itself from the section before the festival. "The priority for IFFI is to attract better films...quality films and not big films," Chatterjee noted. Speaking about the India Premier section of IFFI 2008, he said that a Konkan film `Saavaariya.com` was selected as it was the only local entry. Marathi film `Tandala Ek Mukhavata` is a good flick with lot of commercial element, he added. On Hindi film selection, Chatterjee said that the films fitting into the sprit of the festival were considered for premier here. “`Day in Cochin` is absolutely a new film directed by Tom Pierce. It`s a multilingual film," he said. Bureau Report