BENGALURU: BJP MLC Mohan Kumar Kondajji, a recognised filmmaker, has written to Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and Chief Secretary Ravi Kumar, urging them to avoid wasteful expenditure during the upcoming BIFFES — Bangalore International Film Festival 2021. He said he had placed the issue before the Legislative Council as a starred question, to be answered on March 16.
In his letter to the CM, he pointed out that BIFFES starts on March 24 and ends on March 31, and about 40 per cent or nearly Rs 2 crore of the Rs 5 crore budget is spent on inaugural and closing ceremonies. He told TNIE that they had recently invited a top Bollywood star and paid a phenomenal sum of money.
One star who recently participated in the Bollywood event was paid close to Rs 1 crore, and said that such wasteful expenditure can be avoided, especially since the economy was hit, and revenue was affected due to the global Covid pandemic. He said he had met the principal secretary for information and broadcasting Anjum Pervez, and insisted that this kind of wasteful expenditure should be avoided.
Kondajji, a nominated Legislative Council member who had won a Filmfare award, said this time, considering the pandemic, “We don’t know how many foreign delegates are going to be there, and the information is that a negligible number will be present because of the global pandemic. At a time like this, they can very well avoid wasteful expenditure and do away with extravagant inaugural and closing ceremonies in stadiums or places using expensive sets which do not benefit anybody.”He said that housing delegats in five-star hotels and using expensive cabs could all be considered wasteful because of Covid.