BENGALURU: Suneel Puranik, the newly-appointed chairman of Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy, is all geared up to host the 12th edition of the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFF), which will be happening from February 26 to March 4. He is thrilled about his first big project since he took up the post. Puranik, however, points out that since he assumed office only earlier this month, the paucity of time has sprung up several last-minute hiccups.
Speaking to CE, Puranik says everything has to be knitted together well when an event as big as BIFF has to be organised. “To begin with, the appointment of the chairman of the committee was delayed, which brought in various time-related issues,” says Puranik. The organisers aim to host the film festival according to international standards. More than 200 movies from 50 countries will be featured. The committee is also trying to bring in some international film artistes, but that seems difficult because of lack of time. “We are trying to bring in globally-acclaimed filmmakers and actors, but we can confirm the names only later. It takes more than a month of planning to come up with this kind of itinerary, but now we have not more than 30 days to go for the festival,” says Puranik. He also added they are so pressed for time that even booking theatres and zeroing in on the jury members has increased their work hours to 16-18 hours a day.
While the event will feature a line-up of international movies, special care is being taken to give enough importance to promote Kannada films, which will be a part of the popular and competition sections, where the jury will decide on the winners in different categories. Several activities will be organised on the sidelines of the event, such as master classes held by veteran filmmakers. Special focus will be given to exposing students of cinema to the various aspects of the filmmaking process, like different techniques used to make movies for OTT platforms. More details are expected to be announced in the first week of February.
Get the popcorns out
Film screenings will be held at 11 screens in PVR Cinemas and Orion Mall. Tickets will be priced at
Rs 800 for general public and Rs 400 for students, film society members and people from the film fraternity. About 200 films from 50 different countries will be played on big screens across the city.