Bengaluru: The Sunday crowd that turned up to watch movies at the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes) stumped organizers but at the same time left them happy about the success of the festival.
While the total number of seats available was 3686 seats, the number of people that arrived at the screening area was much higher and many visitors had to be turned away.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a BIFFes organizer said, "Something like 4, 000 passes were sold, but the total number of seats available in Orion Mall is only 3,686. This was certainly a problem during the weekend. So we decided to have separate printed passes for every screen."
Not a single screen was lefty empty and BIFFes orgnisers were forced to issue separate tickets for every movie.
Separate queues to see the highly recommended films were a common sight. Sunday's schedule was packed with many critically acclaimed films, including the Oscar-winning movie Parasite, a South Korean black comedy thriller directed by Bong Joon-ho. Chaos prevailed around the screen when more number of people wanted to watch Parasite.
Though the visitors realize it is practically impossible to watch all the movies scheduled, they did not expect the crowd at every screen. Kiran, a corporate employee, said he had planned to watch Parasite but had to settle for another movie owing to the long queue. "BIFFes has attracted an amazing response. But the planning was not good."
But the organisers were satisfied with the positive notes. "The energy here is wonderful. I loved everything, expect the long line. We somehow managed to watch the Oscar-winning movie and we are happy," said Rakshith, a film lover.
