THE PAK FILM RAMCHAND PAKISTANI COULD NOT BE SCREENED IN MAMI BECAUSE OF TECHNICAL SNAFUS

Q & A by By Jyothi Venkatesh

THE PAK FILM RAMCHAND PAKISTANI COULD NOT BE SCREENED IN MAMI BECAUSE OF TECHNICAL SNAFUS - Kiran Shantaram, Secretary, MAMI



How happy are you with MAMI having been associated with it right from its inception ten years ago?
I am extremely happy with the way MAMI has grown by leaps and bounds. Thanks to MAMI which is held in Mumbai year after year, people now recognize most of cinema from the different parts of the world. From just one screen when MAMI started ten years ago, it is a matter of pride that this year the festival is held in seven screens all over the city and the suburbs.

In what way, according to you, has MAMI grown?
The number of films which are being screened this year in MAMI has increased from the number of films shown in earlier years. This year, as many as 147 films are being shown from more countries from all over the world. This year 40 countries have sent their films for participation in MAMI.


There is a complaint that efforts have not been taken to procure any film from Pakistan this year!
We did initiate discussions to get the film Ramchand Pakistani directed by Javed from Pakistan but unfortunately due to technical snafus and time limitations we could not get the film for screening in MAMI this year.

What is the new feature of MAMI this year?
For the first time, we have started having Master Classes during the week-long MAMI International film festival this year.Besides Dan Wolman who is the director of Tied Hands from Israel, James Mimikos from USA, Stefan Odoardi, Italy, the director of Una Ballata Bianca (A White Ballad) and Dr Dragon from Serbia, this year we have film makers like Sriram Raghavan and Govind Nihalani are taking Master Classes and I am happy that there is a great response for the same even though we have scheduled them at 9.45 am every day at Adlabs Imax, Wadala.

Are there any other new initiatives this year?
For the first time since the inception of MAMI, we will give away The Global Achievement Award this year to international filmmaker Carlos Savra. Besides this, this year, we also have a section called Dimensions Mumbai though which we have also set out to encourage young filmmakers below 25. This will be in addition to our usual yearly awards to felicitate people from the Hindi film industry who have rendered yeoman service to the industry. This year we will be giving Dharmendra the Life Time Achievement Award while Rishi Kapoor will get an award for significant contribution to cinema over 25 years as an actor-director. While Kodak Award for technical excellence will go to Hitendra ghosh, Gulzar will be conferred with an award for Outstanding Contribution to Hindi film music as a lyricist