IFFI Goa 2022: Media tour stuck in tussle with officers, not ready to take any responsibility from Mumbai to Delhi

Preparations are on in full swing for the 53rd International Film Festival of India in Goa. Hotel rents in Goa are skyrocketing day by day and the departure of around 60 journalists from across the country to Goa for the event is hanging in balance. From the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) to the Press Information Bureau (PIB) officials, no one is ready to take responsibility for this media tour and after getting a promise from the organizing committee of the festival to make arrangements for the tour, there is no regular arrangement for the festival. It became difficult for all the visiting journalists to go to Goa as they did not even get their bookings done. No NFDC official is even ready to talk about this.

have been distributed invitations to the 53rd International Film Festival of India to be held in Goa from November 20 to 28 this year, from stars to executives of all domestic and foreign companies. All the hotels in Goa have been booked for these people at government expense. The rates of five star hotels in Goa, which are generally available for Rs.8 to 10 thousand per day, are seen going above Rs.40 thousand per day on the dates of the film festival. It is said that weddings of two or three big business houses are being organized in Goa during the film festival itself and due to this the hotel rents have skyrocketed.

Dozens of journalists from different corners of the country arrive every year to report on this International Film Festival of India. Those who have access to NFDC or PIB, their expenses go into government account and many journalists have been going there at their own expense as well. Usually journalists make these bookings three months in advance. This time, the organizing committee of the film festival informed 60 film journalists of the country about two months before the festival, not to do their own booking. According to the information, the film festival organizing committee had decided to bring a total of 60 film journalists to Goa in a batch of 20-20.

Now that the 53rd International Film Festival of India is just four days away, this list of journalists is hopping between Goa to Mumbai and Mumbai to Delhi. Excluding the expenses of the opening and closing ceremonies, the entire ceremony is costing around Rs 15 crore. However, no decision has been taken so far on the list sent by the Film Festival Organizing Committee to NFDC. Since journalists were refused to make bookings on their behalf, now these journalists are not able to book hotels in Goa on their own even if they want to. Efforts to contact NFDC's Managing Director Devendra Bhakar to know its stand in this regard proved futile.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur will inaugurate the International Film Festival, the biggest fair of cinema. Apart from them, Goa Governor Sreedharan Pillai, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, and Information and Broadcasting Secretary Apoorva Chandra will also be present at the function. This time 282 feature films will be screened at the festival. 180 films representing international cinema will also be screened.