Ashok Kashyap: I want to send a strong message to the film industry

The Bengaluru International Film Festival begins from March 23

After facing familiar issues of uncertainty and time crunch, the organisers of the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes) have put together an encouraging programme list for the 14th edition of the annual event.

Ashok Kashyap, who was appointed as the chairman of the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy (KCA) only recently, spoke to Showtime about his team’s preparations and the issues that plague the festival. Excerpts:

Despite racing against time, your team has managed to curate quality films, invite noted personalities for masterclass sessions and plan interesting events. How did the turnaround happen?

I am a filmmaker. I think of cinema always. Recently, I was the jury for the Indian Panaroma and at the MAMI. Being there on these platforms helped me understand how film festivals are conducted. I was able to establish enormous contacts during these events. So for BIFFes this time, I collaborated with officials I met in Mumbai and Delhi. I got the deliberation done for three competition sections (Asia, India and Kannada) within the span of 15-20 days. It’s almost an impossible task. I have the assistance of our artistic director Narhari Rao, who is experienced and is blessed with an excellent team.

How can you establish a system that ensures the festival begins on a particular date every year?

It’s unfortunate that the upcoming assembly elections posed a challenge to the BIFFes preparations. Despite that, I was able to convince the chief minister and other concerned authorities and get the permission for the festival. I got appointed to the academy only two months back. I didn’t want people to think I am laidback and irresponsible. Despite having just over a month to organise the festival, I have managed to bring it together nicely. I want to send a strong message to the film industry that though we are late in starting our preparation, we will deliver a quality event.

Last year, our chief minister announced that BIFFes will begin every year on March 3. Unfortunately the previous chairman of the KCA should have taken the initiative and passed the GO from the minister. If that had happened, then it would have been a cakewalk for us as the budget and the planning would fall in place smoothly. We could have started our preparations three months back itself. He wasn’t able to do it because he got eliminated before his term for reasons I am not aware of.

The BIFFes has been criticised in the past for extravagant spending on celebrities for the opening and closing ceremonies...

To be honest, in my first action plan, the opening ceremony wasn’t planned in a big auditorium. We wanted the chief minister to light a lamp in front of a screen at the Orion Mall and declare the festival open. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. Once R Ashoka was appointed as the chairman of organising committee, he had bigger plans. He wanted to hold the opening ceremony on the grand steps of Vidhana Saudha. It’s his vision and my job is just to support him.

I feel there is no harm in grand celebrations because BIFFes is Bengaluru’s brand and we should blow our own trumpets. These days, without glamour you cannot widen your reach. At the same time, the spending shouldn’t affect functioning of the festival, especially curation of films.

Kerala is called the most film-literate state. Where does Karnataka stand?

In the 70s, I was a film student and Kannada cinema was going through a golden period that time. I feel the same phase is back with the likes of KGF: Chapter 2, and Kantara gaining nationwide success. People are acknowledging original content, and rooted stories. These kind of films are encouraging rookie filmmakers to think in that perspective. We are also seeing many techies resign their jobs to make films. They are showing interest in learning the film language.

(The Bengaluru International Film Festival will be held from March 23 to March 30. For details visit the official website of BIFFes: https://biffes.org)