The incident occurred on Wednesday evening at MFF
Imran Khan
Mumbai: A day after Bollywood actor Imran Khan was reportedly booed off stage by the audience at the Mumbai Film Festival, when he attempted to present the film Two Days, One Night by the Dardennes brothers, the organisers stepped up to apologise for the incident.
The incident occurred on Wednesday evening, when Imran went up on stage to introduce the French film. The audience immediately began to heckle him, calling out comments like, “Start the film!” and “What are you doing here?” Imran tried to brush off the shouts with an attempt at humour and said, “Even I do not know what I’m doing here!”
On Friday, however, the organisers of the MFF said that the response to Imran had more to do with event-related glitches that had soured the audience’s mood. “Imran Khan was kind enough to give his time to support the festival in a difficult year.
However Murphy’s Law came into play and all that could go wrong (prior to the screening), did. We had subtitles that didn’t play, elections that threw our schedule off (the Maharashtra Assembly elections were held on the same day) and understandably annoyed festival delegates.
Therefore, Imran’s presentation of the film got disrupted and did not go as planned,” a spokesperson for the festival said. Film critic Anupama Chopra, who is the creative director of the MFF also said that Imran hadn’t been asked to present the film in an “expert” capacity.
“Imran was not there as an expert on this particular film. He was there as a supporter of (the festival) and a cinema lover. What happened was mismanagement on our part, not his. He was one of the first people to lend support to the festival and the drive to raise money for it. I’m very sorry that he is having to pay for being kind. We hope this clarifies the situation,” she said.
This has been a tough year for the MFF, which is now in its 16th edition. After a major sponsor pulled out, the organisers were left scrambling for the Rs 5 crore needed for the event at the eleventh hour, and Bollywood celebrities were at the forefront of a campaign to raise the requisite funds.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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