Kochi: The stage is set for the 19th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) which will begin on December 12, but people on social media have not stopped registering their protests against IFFK officials.
Festival goers are criticising the newly introduced seat booking system. As per the new rules, delegates should book the movies prior to the screening.
According to Rupesh Chandran, Convener of Panchajanyam International Film Festival Chittur, Palakkad the festival authorities are forcing film lovers to chose movies.
“Film festivals are major discussion forums, some movies garner appreciation only after their first show while much anticipated movies may not get viewer backing.
With theaters cutting down the seating capacity, the authorities’ call for filmgoers to 'behave' and not to sit down is atrocious,” he said.
At present, only 2200 people will be able to watch the best movie of the festival, which means more than two-third of the delegates would miss the show, he added.
No wonder a Facebook group has even introduced t-shirts mocking the IFFK. T-shirts based on Mohanlal’s popular dialogue in the movie Thoovanathumbikal “Davidetta Kingfisher undo Chilled ?” (Do you have a chilled beer) the group changed it to “Devidetta subtitle undo, chilled?”( Do you have a subtitle, chilled).
While another one “We are doing a film festival” mocking Adoor’s love for English is doing the rounds on Facebook. Head of the IFFK advisory committee filmmaker, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, had famously said that delegates of the film festival should know English to understand films with subtitles in English.
The comment made by Adoor created waves on social media and people heavily criticised the filmmaker. IFFK is expecting a turnout of 7000 delegates this year.
