Stills from the movies Ugly and Transformers: Age Of Extinction.
Leh:
The third Ladakh International Film Festival (LIFF) hosted the maiden Asian screening of Ugly, showed Transformers: Age Of Extinction and even welcomed heavyweights from the Indian film industry. But logistical hassles and lack of government and local support turned spoilers for the festival, thereby raising doubts about its next edition.
When the curtains came down on the three-day festival on Sunday night sans the festival director Melwyn Williams, visitors at an after-party wondered if LIFF would return for another edition or not. (Also read: Deepti Naval Wants to Shoot Film in Ladakh)
Although, the event had some high scoring points - like the Asia premiere of Anurag Kashyap's Ugly and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Bollywood - The Greatest Story Ever Told as well as the screening of Hollywood's latest action thriller Transformers: Age Of Extinction - there were mismanagement issues at the festival held in the peaceful and serene surroundings of this region of Jammu and Kashmir.
A children's workshop was to be hosted by filmmaker and Children's Film Society of India chairperson Amole Gupte; a book reading session was announced with Deepti Naval; the screening of Transformers: Age Of Extinction was planned to be held at the Druk White Lotus School, popular as Rancho's School post 3 Idiots - but this did not work out in reality.
Since Transformers: Age Of Extinction couldn't be shown at the school due to technical glitches, the students and the audience, situated in Shay, close to Leh, had to instead watch Bollywood - The Greatest Story Ever Told, which was made by Mr Mehra when Indian cinema clocked one hundred years. (Also read: Movies amid mountains - Ladakh film festival races against odds)
Later Transformers: Age Of Extinction was screened on the closing day, and it saw a curious audience of army men who were disappointed when the film was stopped midway to accommodate a haphazardly organised closing ceremony.
Of the 67 film screenings announced by the organisers, most played on to an empty hall or auditorium - barring the ones that had some hype about them.
There were three movie-screening venues. Besides one auditorium, the other two were makeshift theatres in adjacent halls filled with plastic chairs with the movie being shown on a projector.
When this visiting IANS correspondent asked a few locals in the markets that why they were not coming for the festival, most showed ignorance saying, "Which festival? We don't know."
What was more surprising was the fact that although LIFF's aim is to nurture filmmaking talent in the region, there were no Ladakhi filmmakers present for any of the activities.
The reason?
A festival official told IANS, "Filmmakers in Ladakh make movies as a part-time profession. They have their main jobs to attend to and since the 33rd Kalachakra Initiation is coming up, they are busy with that as it means more business for them."
The picturesque city is right now gearing up for the 12-day event to be initiated by the Dalai Lama from July 3 to July 14.
A source said on condition of anonymity that support from the locals was missing as the dates were not fixed to avoid overlap with the Kalachakra.
Nevertheless, some names from Bollywood added some weight to the festival.
The known faces from the film industry included Govind Nihalani, Deepti Naval, Gupte, Mr Mehra, Rajit Kapur, Shaji N Karun and Shilpa Shukla.
Mr Kashyap too came to present his film Ugly and Queen director Vikas Bahl was also present briefly.
Acclaimed filmmaker Mani Ratnam and veteran writer-lyricist Gulzar were scheduled to attend the gala but they didn't turn up.
On the jury panel were Mr Nihalani, along with Klaus Eder, general secretary of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) and Maxine Williamson, head of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
Most celebrities believe that the festival will take its due time before it takes off in a big way as the venue offers a novel experience.
It is undoubtedly a brave effort on the organisers' part to organise a film festival at an altitude of over 11,000 feet and in territory where the filmmaking culture is at a nascent stage and where film viewing options are limited.
But given that the past two editions had smoother sailing with better attendance, the third edition of the event turned out to be disappointing.
When the curtains came down on the three-day festival on Sunday night sans the festival director Melwyn Williams, visitors at an after-party wondered if LIFF would return for another edition or not. (Also read: Deepti Naval Wants to Shoot Film in Ladakh)
Although, the event had some high scoring points - like the Asia premiere of Anurag Kashyap's Ugly and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Bollywood - The Greatest Story Ever Told as well as the screening of Hollywood's latest action thriller Transformers: Age Of Extinction - there were mismanagement issues at the festival held in the peaceful and serene surroundings of this region of Jammu and Kashmir.
A children's workshop was to be hosted by filmmaker and Children's Film Society of India chairperson Amole Gupte; a book reading session was announced with Deepti Naval; the screening of Transformers: Age Of Extinction was planned to be held at the Druk White Lotus School, popular as Rancho's School post 3 Idiots - but this did not work out in reality.
Since Transformers: Age Of Extinction couldn't be shown at the school due to technical glitches, the students and the audience, situated in Shay, close to Leh, had to instead watch Bollywood - The Greatest Story Ever Told, which was made by Mr Mehra when Indian cinema clocked one hundred years. (Also read: Movies amid mountains - Ladakh film festival races against odds)
Later Transformers: Age Of Extinction was screened on the closing day, and it saw a curious audience of army men who were disappointed when the film was stopped midway to accommodate a haphazardly organised closing ceremony.
Of the 67 film screenings announced by the organisers, most played on to an empty hall or auditorium - barring the ones that had some hype about them.
There were three movie-screening venues. Besides one auditorium, the other two were makeshift theatres in adjacent halls filled with plastic chairs with the movie being shown on a projector.
When this visiting IANS correspondent asked a few locals in the markets that why they were not coming for the festival, most showed ignorance saying, "Which festival? We don't know."
What was more surprising was the fact that although LIFF's aim is to nurture filmmaking talent in the region, there were no Ladakhi filmmakers present for any of the activities.
The reason?
A festival official told IANS, "Filmmakers in Ladakh make movies as a part-time profession. They have their main jobs to attend to and since the 33rd Kalachakra Initiation is coming up, they are busy with that as it means more business for them."
The picturesque city is right now gearing up for the 12-day event to be initiated by the Dalai Lama from July 3 to July 14.
A source said on condition of anonymity that support from the locals was missing as the dates were not fixed to avoid overlap with the Kalachakra.
Nevertheless, some names from Bollywood added some weight to the festival.
The known faces from the film industry included Govind Nihalani, Deepti Naval, Gupte, Mr Mehra, Rajit Kapur, Shaji N Karun and Shilpa Shukla.
Mr Kashyap too came to present his film Ugly and Queen director Vikas Bahl was also present briefly.
Acclaimed filmmaker Mani Ratnam and veteran writer-lyricist Gulzar were scheduled to attend the gala but they didn't turn up.
On the jury panel were Mr Nihalani, along with Klaus Eder, general secretary of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) and Maxine Williamson, head of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
Most celebrities believe that the festival will take its due time before it takes off in a big way as the venue offers a novel experience.
It is undoubtedly a brave effort on the organisers' part to organise a film festival at an altitude of over 11,000 feet and in territory where the filmmaking culture is at a nascent stage and where film viewing options are limited.
But given that the past two editions had smoother sailing with better attendance, the third edition of the event turned out to be disappointing.
