16% of Indian Panorama films in IFFI 2009 are from Reliance

Reliance BIG Pictures to catalyze the rapid globalization of Indian cinema- Mahesh Ramanathan, COO ,Reliance BIG Pictures.
The 40th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) is screening four major productions of Reliance Big Pictures in the Indian Panorama Section.This is out of 26 films selected in this section(16 % ).These are Shob Charitro Kalponik, Ijjodu, Janala and Kutty Srank. Mahesh Ramanathan, COO, Reliance BIG Pictures said, "The unprecedented success of Reliance BIG Pictures at international festivals has extended to the home turf as well. Our films have been honored in 35 top cities around the globe within last one year. The recognition will inspire the team at Reliance BIG Pictures to catalyze the rapid globalization of Indian cinema
Reliance BIG Pictures , RBEL's motion picture brand, has built a formidable Indian film production slate in English, Hindi and several other Indian languages, which it markets and distributes worldwide.The slate has projects with leading production houses and marquee Indian directors, both mainstream and arthouse, including Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rakesh Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, David Dhawan, Indra Kumar, Anurag Basu, Kunal Kohli, Priyadarshan, Madhur Bhandarkar, Sudhir Mishra, Shaji N. Karun, Shyam Benegal, Rituparno Ghosh, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, M.S. Sathyu and Amol Palekar. In Hollywood, RBEL has signed development deals with Julia Roberts' Red Om Films, Nicolas Cage's Saturn Productions, Jim Carrey's JC 23 Entertainment, George Clooney's Smokehouse Productions, Chris Columbus' 1492 Pictures, Tom Hanks' PlayTone Productions, Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment, Jay Roach's Everyman Pictures and Brett Ratner's Rat Entertainment. RBEL's associate company ADLABS is India's largest film processing, exhibition and services company. Reliance ADA Group is among India's largest private sector, business houses and has interests in communications, financial services, health, energy, infrastructure and media & entertainment.

India is home for me -Ben Kingsley at IFFI 2009 , Goa

India is home for me and one does not visit but come home, said Sir Ben Kingsley at a press conference at IFFI Goa. He said that like a long lost melody or a forgotten perfume, the extraordinary welcome has assured him that the thread that was created in 1981-82 during filming of Gandhi has not snapped. ‘Same juices flowing in my body which I felt when Attenborough said action for Gandhi’ said the legendary actor who is the guest of honour at IFFI Goa. The actor added that when the role was offered to him, he recognized something in Gandhiji’s personality. He was impressed by the way Gandhiji converted his anger to something gracefully constructive.On Taj Mahal his forthcoming project , Kingsley said that he sees Taj ‘as a scream of pain frozen in marble, I want to explore how deep was that pain. Taj is a touchstone and symbol of love’. Ben Kingsley compared Satyajit Ray’s understanding of human struggles with Shakespeare and Tolstoy. He said that Ray was capable of conveying the whole array of nuances with a very small shot.

Mid-Fest self assessment of IFFI Director

S. M. Khan , Festival Director( IFFI ,Goa 2009 )expressed satisfaction that Festival was going smoothly receiving many distinguished film personalities and about 6,500 delegates are attending the Festival. At the mid-fest press conference, Khan along with CEO of Entertainment Society of Goa, Manoj Srivastava interacted with media persons to get their feedback and inform about the progress of the Festival. Both of them heard the suggestions from media persons and assured them of the necessary action

M.I.F.F.-2010 (Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films)

-Documentary as a means to explore serious issues- Kuldeep Sinha, Director, M.I.F.F.-2010.
The 11th edition of M.I.F.F. organized by the Films Division will be held from 3rd to 9th February, 2010 at the prestigious National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Nariman Point, Mumbai. The Festival is to be held with the active support of the Government of Maharashtra. In a press conference held in the IFFI 2009 at Panaji Shri Kuldeep Sinha, Chief Producer, Films Division and Director, M.I.F.F.-2010 (Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films) said that documentary film culture is fast growing if 40 plus documentary film festivals taking place annually in the country is taken as an indication of growing popularity of documentary films. Documentary should not be commercialized and the Films Division takes it as a means to explore serious issues, he added. He also disclosed that Films Division CDs on documentary on Satyajit Ray and Mohmmad Rafi are a big hit at the CD counter IFFI Goa and they have so far exhausted there stock. M.I.F.F. is a competitive biennial event which has gained recognition on par with renowned International Film Festivals like Leipzig , Berlin , Oberhausen , Cracow , Tampere etc. M.I.F.F.started in 1990, is currently rated as the world’s best and largest documentary film festival manned by film makers.
From this edition of the Festival, International and Indian Competition Sections have been merged into one Competition Section. Another salient feature is a new award being introduced for “Best Student Film/Video”. The award money has also been enhanced from this M.I.F.F. in each category and the total award money now is Rs. 22.75 lakhs along with Golden/Silver Conches in different categories of Competition. “Dr. V. Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award” will be awarded to an Indian film maker for his/her contribution to documentary film movement, with cash award and trophy.
Apart from Competition Section, there will be screening of Retrospectives and Special Packages, Spectrum India , Seminars and Open Forum during M.I.F.F.-2010. In Retrospectives & Special Packages, Jury’s retrospectives, Women packages, Oscar nominated films, films on cinema legends and unsung heroes of Indian Freedom Movement and in Country Focus, films from Bhutan, France, Chile, Argentina as well as Student’s package from FTII, SRFTII, NID etc., are being showcased.
So far, M.I.F.F. has received 864 entries from 37 countries which is an all time record. The Selection Committee consisting of eminent film makers, journalists and critics has already started previewing the films, the total duration of which crosses more than 400 hours. According to Shri Kuldeep Sinha, Chief Producer, Films Division and Director, M.I.F.F.-2010, his entire team is working tirelessly to make the 11th edition of the Festival a memorable one for the cineaste attending the M.I.F.F. from India as well as from abroad.

Indian panorama (IFFI 2009) , how good was the choice? - Truth Untold

Gautaman Bhaskaran , a member of the Indian panorama Feature Film Jury , senior journalist ,writer on films and a regular in world’s known festivals like Cannes, Venice, Marrakech etc reveals the drama behind the selection of films for Indian Panorama section of the prestigious national event of films(IFFI).There were two writs filed by Ranjith ,producer of film Kerala cafe supported by film fraternity in Kerala and Pazhasiraja Foundation questioning the selection of films to Indian panorama .Gautaman’s kumbassaram or confession can also be read in the cinema section of www.hindustantimes.com. According to Gautaman Bhaskaran “ the prestigious Indian Panorama opened here today at the International Film Festival of India with the Konkani work, Paltadcho Manis (The Man Beyond the Bridge). This is the first ever Konkani movie in the Panorama section, since its inception in the 1970s. This year, there are 26 films in this section, which, according to Festival Director S.M. Khan’s note in the Panorama brochure, affords “a top-of-the mountain view of Indian cinema”. He adds: “This section presents a 360 degree sprawl of the Indian cinema which in its vast sweep encompasses many subcultures and lifestyles. The cinema that emanates out of this varied cultural landscape is equally diverse and unique”.
Sadly, Khan could not be farther from the truth. Over the years, the Indian Panorama has been attracting “muck” as one cineaste at Goa rightly pointed out. Most of the 100-odd movies that were sent up for possible selection in a section that was first envisaged to showcase the works of talented newcomers and masters were of abysmally poor quality. And out of this, a seven-member jury (of which I was a part), chaired by Muzaffar Ali, picked 26, the maximum number that can go here.
How good was this choice? The answer is not far to seek. For one, there were some on the jury who failed to understand that this is an Indian Panorama, not a Bengali or Tamil or Malayalam or Oriya Panorama. Often, this key aspect is lost sight of with members bogged down by their own linguistic and cultural preferences. They forget that they are part of a pan-Indian body selecting pan-Indian cinema.
Obviously, the selections were unfair or, at least, not as fair as they ought to have been. And this must be said in the interest of public money and trust. This year, Kerala Café, for instance, should have certainly made the cut. But it did not. On the other hand, entries, such as Kutty Srank, Ijjodu and Shankara Punyakoti should never have been chosen. But they were, and all these three made it into the Panorama because they got the Chairman’s casting vote.
It is well known by now that the Chairman watched but very few films, and another member, Bobby Bedi, did not attend the screenings for 13 out of the 15 days that the jury saw the movies. Bedi was out of the country. Ali was away in Lucknow for at least three days. The usual and almost sacrosanct practice of daily jury deliberations chaired by the Chairman was dispensed with.
Raghu Menon, Secretary in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, told me at an informal meeting in New Delhi that it was his dream to make IFFI a world class event. It is a dream that so many of us share. But the selection of the Panorama jury by the organizing Directorate of Film Festivals and the privileges it extended to some members like Ali and Bedi were highly questionable” , Gautaman concludes.

NFDC Film Bazaar at 40TH IFFI

A film bazaar was opened under the aegis of National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) on the sidelines of the 40th International Film Festival of India.. NFDC is a Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India’s Public Sector Unit.
This year the Hong Kong Trade Development Corporation, distributors from Europa Cinemas and American Film Institute are participating in the Bazaar to expand their global film network. The UK Film Council and Primexchange, an initiative funded by European Commission are also participating. Gold Crest Films, Videovision Entertainment, Rapid Eyes Movies, BBC Films, The Match Factory, Insomnia World Sales are some of the participating companies. Workshops, Co-production Projects, Work in Progress lab and discussions under the theme ‘Knowledge Series’ are the various facets of the Film Bazaar 2009.
The Film Bazaar aims at creating opportunities for networking and business for producers, filmmakers and distributors from across the world. The Co-production Projects at Film Bazaar present to the world feature-length (75 mins or more) projects that are based on Indian stories. At Film Bazaar these selected projects receive the opportunity to be pitched by their representatives to potential collaborators for finance, distribution, and artistic support through one-to-one meetings. Feature Projects 2009 include Ceylon by Santosh Sivan; I Am by Onirban; Inside-Out by Ketan Mehta; Keep off the Grass by Ben Rekhi; LSD by Dibakar Banerjee; Manjunath by Sandeep Varma; Obsession by Suman Ghosh; The Return of the Tiger by Mike Pandey; The Virgin Goddess by K.N.T. Sastry and Twosome by Siddharth Sinha.
This year’s ‘Knowledge Series’ will have presentations on Digital Distribution for web and mobile; De-coding India’s Co-production treaties with UK, Germany, Brazil and Italy; International Film Financing as also a discussion with film maker Mani Ratnam on his body of work. The three-day Film Bazaar will continue till November 26, 2009.

Waheeda Rehman inaugurates 40th International Film Festival of India

“Our time line is to implement suitable changes by IFFI 2010”-Ambika Soni ,Minister For Information And Broadcasting.

40th International FilmFestival of India kicked-off with the renowned actor of yesteryears Waheeda Rahman inaugurating the festival along with I&B minister Ambika Soni. Actors Asin and Nana Patekar were also present at the inauguration at Kala Academy, Panaji, Goa. Waheeda Rehman inaugurated the Festival with the symbolic lighting of the lamp assisted by actors Asin and Nana Patekar as special guests in the presence of Shri Digambar V. Kamat ,Chief Minister of Goa, and Smt. Ambika Soni ,Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting. The International Jury headed by Brazilian Director Joao Batista de Andrade along with other members of the jury - Vic Sarin (Canada), Kenichi Okubu (Tokyo), Sarika (India) and Jean-Michel Frodon (France) were felicitated at the opening ceremony. Noted Film makers Gurinder Chadha, Nonzee Nimibutr and Roland Reber attended the inaugural function. Notable among those who attended the function included Shri Muzaffar Ali, Chairman, Feature Film Jury, Indian Panorama. Shri Raghu Menon , Secretary, Ministry of I&B, Government of India . Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said that a committee of experts will be constituted to recommend measures for making the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) a world class, global event.. “Our time line is to implement suitable changes by IFFI 2010”, she declared. The Minister added that IFFI belongs to all film lovers and invited all well wishers of IFFI to send their suggestions to the Ministry for the consideration of this Committee. “To see IFFI stand tall as one of the best International Film Festivals in the world is my vision, my goal”, the Ministeradded. . This time it was a paradigm shift with regard to entertaintment followed the inaguraral function. The well choreographed colourful rendition of the ensemble of classical dance forms from Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Kerala and Gujarat presented by the Kalashetra This programme was directed by Leela Samson.
The Chinese historical drama “Wheat” (MAI TIAN) directed by He Ping was screened at the close of the opening ceremony

Online help for Documentary and Short films

Mr. Thomas David, CEO of www.kalavedionline.com, an NRI online portal based at New York would like to put shorts and docs of good quality on any subject in their portal for promoting the films and to attract prospective buyers and festival authorites round the world. The screening of the film is only limited to the portal as a service and no right shall be given to the portal about international festival or online except showing it in the portal. If the film is repeated in the portal on request a nominal charge will be levied.The films may be submitted in DVD, mini DV or DvCam formats.Those interested may contact Mr.Thomas David at info@kalavedionline.com

International Jury of 40TH IFFI

The International Jury of International Film Festival of India comprises of Joao batista de Andrade - Chairman , Mr. Vic Sarin - Canada , Ken'ichi Okubo - Japan , Jean-Michel Frodon France and Sarika from India

"Wheat " opening film in IFFI 2009

Wheat directed by He Ping will be the opening film in the International Film Festival of India to be commenced on 23 rd November at Goa .The Chinese title Mai tian ,when literally translated "Wheat field" is a Chinese historical drama directed by He Ping. Starring Fan Bingbing, Wang Jue, and others, Wheat tells the story of women left behind after their husbands are sent to war. The film is set in the chaotic Warring States period, a brutal, 250-year slugfest that finally resulted in China's unification under the Qin in 221 B.C. Main story takes place over a short period during the summer of 260 B.C., following the Battle of Changping, one of the biggest slaughterhouses in history, in which Qin forces killed almost half a million Zhao troops.
The film was produced for US $6 million and was funded by He's own Beijing Classic Culture, along with Polybona Films, and the state-backed Xi'an Film Studio. Filmed in 2008, Wheat premiered on June 13, 2009, as the opening film in the 2009 Shanghai International Film Festival..

IFFI Tribute to departed film personalities

The 40th IFFI to be inagurated this 23rd at Goa would offer homages to 13 film personalities who left us since the last fest -Murali, A.K. Lohitadas, Rajan P. Dev Nabendu Chatterjee, Prakash Mehra, Gulshan Bawra, Leela Naidu, Shakti Samanta, Feroz Khan, , Nilu Phule, Bhaskar Chandavarkar, R. Lakshman and Nagesh.

Stage set for the impressive 40th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) – 2009

The Chief Minister of Goa, Shri Digambar V. Kamat has pointed out that 'Goa, a Celluloid Destination' would be an important section this time. The idea is to promote Goa as a shooting destination for all the international directors, producers and other film makers. It was informed that at least eight films shot in Goa will be screened during the Festival. Shri Kamat reiterated that there is no security threat to the Film Festival and the people need not feel concerned on this account. Shri Kamat informed the press that last year they dspent 11 crores and this year planning to cut the cost of the fest. The Chief Minister was addressing a press conference here along with the Shri S. M. Khan ,Festival Director, Shri Sanjay Srivastava ,Chief Secretary of Goa, Shri Manoj Srivasta, CEO of ESG.
The Chief Minister added that a new idea of 'T20 of Indian Cinema', nominating the best of twenty films produced in the last 96 years, has been introduced this year and this has an overwhelming response .The Chief Minister also informed that on the sidelines, at the Corniche between Old GMC and Kala Academy Goan cultural activities would also be showcased between 23rd November to 3rd December 2009.Shri S. M. Khan, the Festival Director pointed out that the International Film Festival of India is also noted worldwide for the attractive awards given out at this Festival. Shri Khan elaborated that the Best Film Award to the Director and Producer of the Award Winning Film in the Competition Section carries a prize money of Rs. 40 lakhs and the Golden Peacock Award. Shri Khan also said that in keeping with the recommendations of the International Jury last year, this year's Silver Peacock Award along with monetary prize of Rs. 15 lakhs would go to the Best Director rather than to the Best Debut Director as had been the practice till last year. The Special Jury Award at IFFI also carries a sum of Rs. 15 lakhs along with the Silver Peacock Award. He informed that this year films from Croatia, Estonia, Italy, and Poland will be screened under the ?Country Focus? Section at IFFI-2009. 75 years of Assamese cinema and screening of Telugu musical hits will be yet another novelty for IFFI-2009. The Indian Section at IFFI - 2009 under nine different segments will screen 77 films. The Indian Panorama at IFFI 2009 would present a bouquet of 44 films, 26 feature films and 18 non-feature films.
Nearly 6000 delegates and more than 300 media persons are likely to participate in IFFI-2009 scheduled to be inaugurated on November 23, 2009. Veteran Film Actress Waheeda Rehman will be the Chief Guest at the inaugural ceremony. The Governor of Goa Dr S. S. Sidhu, the Chief Minister, Shri Digambar V. Kamat and the Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting, Smt. Ambika Soni will also grace the occasion. Actor Asin would be special guest for lighting the ceremonial lamp, actor Kabir Bedi and artist Divya Dutta would be compeering. The Festival would conclude on December 03, 2009 with presentation of Golden and Silver Peacock Awards for Best Film and Best Director, the Special Jury Awards as also the Vasudha and Golden Lamp Tree Awards for the short films. The renowned actor Mammootty will be the Chief Guest at the Closing Ceremony.

Waheeda Rehman and Mammootty would be Chief Guests of 40th IFFI

The versatile actor of yester years Waheeda Rahman and the renowned actor Mammootty will be the Chief Guests at the Opening and Closing ceremonies, respectively, in the 40th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2009 to begin at Panaji,Goa on the 23rd of November 2009. Smt Ambika Soni , Minister of Information and Broadcasting will be present in the Opening Ceremony. Actor Asin would be special guest for lighting the ceremonial lamp and actor actors Kabir Bedi and Divya Dutta would be compeering the Opening Ceremony.

The International Section of the IFFI includes Cinema of World with55 films from 45 countries. The retrospectives of Gurinder Chadha, Nonzee Nimabitur, Roland Reber, Joao Batista and Manoel De Olivera would be the highlights of this edition of IFFI.. The continent Focus on Latin America and Country Focus on Croatia; Italy; Poland; Estonia and France would be other attractions.. Film India Worldwide will showcase films made by Non-Resident Indians in collaboration with foreign filmmakers. There is also a section on Anti War Films. In the Indian Panorama section 26 feature films and 18 non-feature films would be screened.

14th International Film Festival of Kerala -Programmes being finalised

The Department of Cultural Affairs and Kerala State Chalachitra Academy are planning to felicitate Music maestro A.R. Rahman , Oscar winners Resul Pookutty and Gulzar at the inaugural ceremony of the forthcoming IFFK -14th International Film Festival of Kerala from 11 to 18th December.Fourteen films, including two Malayalam films, Sufi Paranja Katha directed by Priyanandanan and Madhyavenal by Madhu Kaithapuram. are selected for the competition section. Do paise ki dhoop, char aane ki baarish by Deepti Naval and Road to Sangam by Amit Rai are the other two Indian films in the competition section.
There are seven films in the Indian Cinema Now section, including the award winning Marathi film Harishchandrachi Factory. Two other Marathi films, Gandh directed by Sachin Kundalkar and Vihir directed by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni, have also found their place in this section. Bengali films Kaalbela directed by Goutam Ghosh and Maya Bazaar directed by Joydeep Ghosh, Telugu movie Sontha Vooru directed by P. Suneel Kumar Reddy and Hindi film Ek tho chance by Saeed Akhtar Mir are also included .Films from Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe will also be screened at the festival. The country in focus for the current fest will be Cuba.

Indian panorama non feature list for 40th IFFI-2009 announced

The opening film in the non-features section will be "In For Motion" (English) by Anirban Datta in the Indian Panorama section of the 40th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2009 to be held in Panaji, Goa from November 23,2009 which will have 18 non features. Other films to be shown in the section are "Bilal" (Bengali and Hindi) by Sourav Sarangi, "Ekti Kaktaliya Golpo" (Bengali) by Tathagaba Sinha, "I'm the Very Beautiful" (Bengali) by Shyamal Kumar Karmakar, "The First Leap" (English) by Haobam Pabankumar, "The Latent City" (English) by Krishnendu Bose, Gautam Benegal's "The Prince and the Crown of Stones" (English), "What If?" (English) by V K Prakash, "Boond" (Hindi) by Abhishek Pathak, "Chilika Banks" (Hindi) by Akanksha Joshi, "Kya Main Qafir Hoon" (Hindi) by "Sandhin Flora", "Supermen of Malegaon" (Hindi and Urdu) by Faiza Ahmad Khan, "Swayambhu Sen Forsees His End" in Hindi, Malayalam and English by Debashish Medhkar, Arun Sukumar's "When This Man Dies" in Hindi and English, "Kelkkunnundo" (Malayalam) by Geetu Mohan Das, "Ilisa Amagi Mahao" (Manipuri) by Nighthouja Lancha, "Vitthal" (Marathi) by Vinno Choliparambil and "Nanam Oru Pen" (Tamil) V Ranganathan.
The non-feature films jury was headed by Manipuri filmmaker Aribam Syam Sharma with Paromita Vohra, Pushpesh Pant, Sameer Hanchate and Kapilas Bhuyan as the other members.

Indian panorama list for 40th IFFI - 2009 announced

Konkani movie "Paltadacho Munis" will be the opening film in the Indian Panorama section of the 40th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2009 to be held in Panaji, Goa from November 23,2009 which will have 26 feature films .As the Kerala High Court has lifted a stay on the publication of results of films selected for the Indian Panorama, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry announced the list of films to be shown in the Indian panorama .There will be six Bengali, three Kannada, two English ,two Malayalam, two Tamil, one Tulu , one Konkani ,three Marathi, one Rajasthani and five Hindi films.Hindi films include recent Bollywood releases "Dev. D" (Anurag Kashyap), "Firaaq" (Nandita Das), "Kaminey" (Vishal Bhardwaj), "Oye Lucky-Lucky Oye" (Dibakar Banerjee) ,and "The White Elephant" (Ajiz Khan). other films included in this basket are Bengali films, "Aainaate" (Dulal Dey),"Angashumaner Chhobi" (Atanu Ghosh), "Antaheen" (Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury),"Dwando" (Suman Ghosh), "Janala" (Buddhadeb Dasgupta), and "Shob Charitro Kalponik" (Rituparno Ghosh) and "For Real" by Sona Jain in English, "Land Gold Women" in English and Urdu by Avantika Hari,"Beli Matthu Hola" (Kannada) by P R Ramadasa Naidu, "Ijjodu" (Kannada) by M S Sathyu, "Shankara Punyokoti" (Kannada) by G Murthy, "Keshu" (Malayalam) by Sivan,"Kutty Shrank" (Malayalam) by Shaji N Karun, "Ek Cup Chay" (Marathi) by Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukhtankar, "Gabhrjcha Paus" (Marathi) by Satish Manwar, Harishchandrachi Factory ( Marathi) Paresh Mokashi , "Haat: The Weekly Bazaar" (Rajasthani) by Seema Kapoor, "Achchamundu Achchamundu" (Tamil) by Arun Vaidyanathan, "Pasanga" (Tamil) by Pandi Raj ,"Gaggara" in Tulu by Shivadhwaj Shettyand Paltadacho Munis (Konkani), by Laxmikant Shetgaonkar.
Muzaffar Ali chaired the jury of the feature films section which had Bobby Bedi, Joseph Pulinthanath, J Mahendran, Gautaman Bhaskaran, Leslie Carvalho and Raja Mitra as members.

Panorama Films for IFFI 2009: interim stay lifted

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court comprising Chief Justice S.R .Bannurmath and Justice A.K.Basheer on Tuesday stayed a single Judge’s order restraining the Government of India in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Directorate of Film Festivals from publishing the results of the selection of films made to the Indian panorama for the 40th International Film Festival of India, 2009, to be held in Panaji, Goa from November 23. In the appeal the Directorate contended that as per the existing regulations any dispute arising between the producer and the Directorate of Film Festivals shall be referred to the Secretary , Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt.of India whose decision shall be final. In this case instead of approaching the Secretary I&B first, the petitioner had filed a petition before the High Court directly.