In Focus

2021 IFFI WILL SET THE NEW BENCHMARKS

Subhash Phaldessai

By Rajesh Ghadge

The 51st International Film Festival of India (IFFI) will kickstart on the 16th of January and this time with the scenario will be completely different since for the first time the film festival will happen in Hybrid format with the much wider reach to the audience across the globe. Organising a festival of this magnitude that too during the COVID times is not an easy task but the vision and dedication of the Vice Chairman ESG (Entertainment Society of Goa) Mr Subhash Phaldessai made this impossible thing possible in a very short span of time. How the entire thing worked out, you can listen from the man behind it…

The rst challenge was to renovate the INOX Multiplex and make it ready in time for the IFFI and that was one of the biggest challenge in front of Mr Phaldessai as the Covid was on its peak in the month of May 2020 when they took up the task in hand and the Monsoon was about to begin from June onwards. “But that did not stop us from nishing the task. We invited the tender and nalised it in the month of May by hading over he work order to the successful bidder. I was following up the entire progress very closely till the end of the successful completion of the same, said Mr Phaldessai adding that one of the major challenge in front of him was to m a n a g e t h e l a b o u r e r s , contractors, skilled manpower, Engineers who were stationed here in the ESG complex, “Even if one person was infected with the virus it could have been the big disaster and could have ruined the entire ow of work. There were around 200 people working at any given point of time and work was going on 24X7.” “We did not allow anyone to leave the ESG complex and everything they needed was provided to them inside the premises itself. All of them were completely cut off from the outside world till the task get completed. None of them went out, nor got infected, and this was something that we had complete control over as we wanted to maintain this level of health security,” he added. After spending nearly 40 crore rupees the New Inox Multiplex transformed into one of the most amazing place in Goa. “There is a big transformation from what it was, we have not only worked on the look and feel of the multiplex, but the technology used has also been upgraded. in terms of the projection system, and the sound systems amounting to roughly 40 Crores worth of changes have been done on the place,” said Mr Phaldessai adding that he had one of the major challenge before him to complete the entire work and that too in the limited time so that IFFI happens in the month of November. “Despite trying all the possible ways, we still got delayed by almost two months and this happened as most of the materials that was supposed to come from outside India was halted due to the Covid condition and other protocols.” According to Mr Phaldessai when the entire world was silent under lockdown he and his team was working inside the ESG to accomplish the impossible task. “We had turned the challenge into t h e o p p o r t u n i t y a n d w h i l e everyone else was shielded and was settled at home, the ESG Team and the Inox Team were both working together and got this done awlessly,” he said.

This will be the rst time in the history of a International Film Festival of India that the IFFI is happening in a Hybrid Form, which means the events and lm exhibitions will be done in physical as well as online formats. “As we all know that the Life cannot stop and we decided to take up this challenge. Somewhere we had to start as the economic activities had come an halt and unless we take some action, it was not possible to come out of the shell,” said Mr Phaldessai adding that The Economy of the country was going downwards and there was no revenue structuring happening. “How long are we just going sit at home and expect things to work outWe couldn 't possibly survive without the economic activities so the Directorate of Film Festivals a n d t h e I n f o r m a t i o n a n d Broadcasting Ministry, sat down with us and decided on holding IFFI in Hybrid Format.” Now that the festival is happening in the Hybrid format the things won't be same as it were in the past, stated Mr Phaldessai. “We are doing something that has not been done by anyone before, screening part of the Festival would be done in Physical (Ofine) format and the other aspects of the Festival such as the Master classes and Retrospectives will be done online and for this we have already made all the necessary arrangements such as Software, System Applications. We have done the necessary tests before giving hem out to the public. It was a really challenging atmosphere but we managed to get all this done and we are condent that everything will go smoothly,” said Mr Phaldessai. “We will be taking care of all the guidelines set by the MHA while doing the screening of the movies in the auditoriums, although we have the Auditoriams with the capacity of 900 seating but as per the MHA guidelines only 200 seating will be allowed at any given time. Besides that we have also cut down on the delegate numbers from earlier 14000 to mere 2500 this time. Besides the 4 Auditoriums of Inox we will also be using 1 Auditorium of Kala Academy. At the moment, we have the 4 Inox Auditoriums, 2 E S G A u d i t o r i u m s , a n d 1 Auditorium at Kala Academy,” he added. Unfortunately this time there will be no outdoor activities due to the Covid situation. “There won't be any public screening this time and o t h e r a c t i v i t i e s h a v e b e e n completely scrapped since they attract a huge crowd and that can be a bit of problem with respect to the ongoing pandemic. The DFF has clearly mentioned how we shouldn't carry on with the Open Air Screenings as we cannot violate the guidelines ourselves.” The next challenge that Mr Phaldessai spoke about is the Sanitisation process of the various locations of IFFI. According to him, this time there will be a big leap in the process of handling the international and national guests. “Earlier we used to provide them with the rooms on the sharing basis but this time that won't be possible and we will have to provide them even the car on a individual basis as nobly would want to share the car with the others and this way number of rooms and cars arranged for the guests will go up tremendously. Before, the cars were kept in common for the guests, as the seating could be 4-5 in the car if the destination was same but now d u e t o a l l o u r s a n i t i s a t i o n protocols we have dedicated cars for people in a singular manner. Cars will be sanitised pre and post travels and so on. The Auditorium seats will be sanitised, before every show and after show. We h a v e a r r a n g e d f o r a l l t h e Sanitisation Fogging Machines, and this way there will be a huge gap between shows. Even the screening of the lms will be reduced this time compared to the previous year. last year we has showcased more than 350 lms but this time that gure will not cross the mark of 200 lms and this year most probably Kala Academy will be used for the opening and closing ceremony of the festival,” said Mr Phaldessai. \ As far as the crowd is concerned, this time there won't be more than 200 people allowed for the opening and closing ceremony. “Unlike last year wherein more than 5000 guests has attended the Opening and closing ceremony of the IFFI this year that number will remain limited to just 200 and to maintain this we will be giving the entry passed only to the people of Festival Core Team and rest of the people will be able to enjoy the opening and closing ceremony online only,” he said. This year the ESG has also cut down on the cultural programs during the opening and closing of the festival with only limited number of activities. “This time we have given the preference to the Goan performers to participate in the cultural programs presented during the opening and closing of festival. This time we have given all the tenders to Goan artists which also includes the decorations and installations at the ESG venue and other locations. We ' re looking to push our local and Goan talent by the way of giving them more exposure and perks when they do work with us in this festival. I am really proud and happy to say that the Goans are doing a really wonderful job with us for the Festival.

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