Hyderabad: A few years ago, when the International Film Festival was held in Hyderabad, several leading lights from the industry here, including directors and writers, attended even without invitation.
Their eagerness in exploring stories and finding new characters was refreshing.
But today, some years later, the 18th Golden Elephant event has seen close to zero participation from Tollywood, and even Hyderabad. Some claim, the opening ceremonies too lacked a local flavour. That is surprising because the city has been earmarked as the permanent venue for the children's film fest. So, why is there no mention or representation from one of the world's largest movie industries, or even the event's host city?
"Hyderabad is the permanent venue for this event, but the office remains in Mumbai. Earlier, the government here had agreed to give some land to construct a venue, but those plans never took off. When Hyderabad became the permanent venue, it also meant that the offices of the children's fest should have been shifted from Mumbai to Hyderabad. Only then would there be some local talent, workshops, training schools or more. Otherwise, what you get is a troop of celebs coming into town every two years, holding an event and then going away," says G. Adiseshagiri Rao, the former chairman of the AP Film Development Corporation.
Rao also adds that since the office is in Mumbai, only industries within the proximity of Bollywood will benefit from the fest. "You get these Mumbai-based firms hosting the opening and closing ceremonies, and that's why there's no local flavour... because these Mumbai event management firms work on their own and they may not (or need not) consider local talent."
But Director Teja, however, had a very different opinion.
"The Telugu industry has a huge ego problem. Everybody expected to be hightlighted in the press, but they didn't want to attend the event... because let's face it, we have never made a good film. We always make films with the same stories and have never attempted a change in the subjects," says Teja.
The director adds that if the same function had happened in Chennai or Kollywood, local artistes would definitely turn up to participate.
"There's Kamal Haasan who attends every festival in Chennai, small or big. And it's the same with Bengali cinema. If there's an event happening in Kolkata, all Bengali film artistes, including the nationally known actors, will attend. But as far as Hyderabad is concerned, it's all about egos."
Teja also says that a children's film festival is rather 'dry' for Tollywood when it comes to 'inspiration'.
"The other world film fests give ideas that many can copy from. But as far as films for children are concerned, they can't make stories to suit our Telugu stars," says Teja, explaining another reason why Tollywood has chosen to give the event a miss.
Even Burugupalli Sivarama Krishna, president, Andhra Pradesh Producer Council, feels that the children's film fest's office must shift from Mumbai to Hyderabad.
"You give the event a permanent venue and then shift the office to Hyderabad. Then we'll see how successful the film fest will be," he says.
