BENGALURU : As the pandemic made it clear that physical events would be a no-no for some time to come at least, Ritam Bhatnagar knew that virtual would have to be the way ahead. But at the same time, with the internet overloaded with content, Bhatnagar, the founder of the content festival, India Film Project (IFP), knew that he would have to create an on-ground experience in the virtual world.
The tenth edition of IFP, which is scheduled to take place between Oct. 22 and 25, has required much out-of-the-box thinking. “At a time when a lot of festivals were called off or postponed, our young team comprising mostly those in their 20s, has not only built a platform with an ability to engage lakhs together, but also replicated experience closest to the festival that happens annually at Mehboob Studios,” says Mumbai-based Bhatnagar.
Having reimagined the whole concept to keep things real, this is an attempt to ensure meaningful interactions. Three ‘parallel stages’ will cover hundreds of sessions and workshops with segments called create, collaborate, and celebrate. From learning to create special sounds for podcasts to using a GoPro for cinematic shots, advertisements and short films, the festival is an attempt to look beyond just films.
“Only 25 per cent of the content is on films, the rest is literature, music, digital and photography. At the end of the day, it’s about being a content-driven festival,” says Bhatnagar, adding, “Creators from more than 30 countries participate and attend the festival each year. This year too, we wanted to provide the same experience to connect, chat and interact with like-minded creators.”
In September, as a precursor to this festival, they organised several competitions, like ‘50 Hour Filmmaking Challenge’, ‘50 Hour Music Challenge’, and scriptwriting, storytelling and design challenges, which saw over 55,000 creators who made more than 1,800 short films and 1,200 original tracks over a weekend. “For the filmmaking challenge, we received 38,000 entries from 30 countries, out of which 1,400 were from Bengaluru, the second highest after Mumbai. Our guess is that many have spent the lockdown to make films, which is one of the reasons,” he says.
Skewed gender ratio and roles in films is often a point of discussion. Making a beginning with the festival is their attempt to bring about the change. “If we think that films should change the way women are portrayed, we felt that the representation should begin with our festival. Which is why each of panel discussions has an equal representation from each gender to ensure different view points are aired,” he says.
The virtual festival will see 170-plus names from films, digital, literature and music climbing the IFP’s stage from their couch. Some of them are Mira Nair, Bhumi Pednekar, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Pankaj Tripathi, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vikrant Massey, Ratna Pathak Shah, Gregg Barbanell, Dolly Singh, Resul Pookutty and Jim Sarbh. Over 80 sessions are planned across four days, which include curated conversations, and workshops. The event will take place from Oct. 22 to 25. Details on IFP website.