Racket on fees to artistes comes to light

NT NETWORK
Posted on 2008-11-20
PANAJI- The efforts of the Entertainment Society of Goa to reduce the budget for various entertainment programmes to be held around the state, during the International Film Festival of India 2008 may have been quite successful. However, the alleged misappropriation of funds by some members of the cultural programme committee for IFFI 2008 has turned this success irrelevant.
The cultural programme committee for IFFI 2007, constituted under the chairmanship of Mr Vishnu Wagh faced a plethora of charges, including its failure to clear the honorarium of local artists, who had performed at various locations in Goa, during the film festival, last year.
The newly appointed CEO of the ESG, Mr Manoj Shrivastava, this year managed to bring down the total budget for the cultural programme committee 2008, from allocated amount of Rs 2 crore to Rs 1.5 crore. Last year, the amount spent by the cultural programme committee was around Rs 2.80 crore.
This year, some of the members of the cultural programme committee, who have themselves taken the contract of providing artists of national and international repute for the entertainment programmes around Goa, have finalised the artists at a particular fee, while quoted much higher amount before the ESG. The criteria for finalisation of the artists’ fee, and ceiling on maximum amount to be paid to any reputed artist, have taken a backseat, thanks to personal relations some of these members enjoy with the top politicians in power.
Highly placed sources, on the condition of anonymity, informed that the ESG has been misinformed about the fees charged by the artists like Kavita Krishnamurthy and Uttara Kelkar, while dancers who had performed in the Marathi television dance show, ‘Ekapeksha Ek’, including Bhargavi and her choreographer, Megha Sampat have been paid Rs 50,000, as against their bills shown to the ESG amounting lakhs of rupees.
The leader of the opposition, Mr Manohar Parrikar said the cultural programme committee for the IFFI has now become a big money making racket, with members of the committee themselves taking contract for providing artists and making a lot of money in the process.
There has also been lot of confusion over awarding of contract for provision of infrastructure (stage, sound, lights, chairs, etc) to six sub-centres around Goa, which will hold entertainment programmes during the IFFI 2008.
The decision to exclude the six sub-centres from the list of the official event management agency for the film festival and awarding their infrastructural work to a private contractor, acquired an ugly turn, when a contractor from Ponda having close links with a leading politician was awarded the task. Some of the members of the cultural programme committee, who did not like the choice tried to cancel the contract, while the private contractor used all his political clout to retain the same.
The chairperson of this committee, Mr Tomazinho Cardozo when asked informed that the artists coming to Goa would be paid their fee, while they will be taking care of their own travel, accommodation and food, with the exception of the leading playback singer, Mr Sonu Nigam.
"All payments to various artists, groups, etc shall be made as per the norms. All payments above Rs 20,000 are made on submission of PAN number and proper bills," a press release of the cultural programme committee informs.
Also, it has also come to light that some of the members of the cultural programme committee have got printed their visiting cards as well as invitation cards for the cultural programmes in their individual name, using the committee funds.
It is also learnt that no ‘Out of the world’ programme will be held at the NIWS ground, Caranzalem, during the IFFI, as most of the programmes performed by the celebrated artists have been shifted to South Goa, especially Margao.
Panaji will host programmes like ‘Dance with Jason and Sylvia’ and ‘Hum Kisise Kum Nahin’ by Akshada Bandekar, which have already been held in the city, on another platform. The city will also have programmes like ‘Glimpses in Cinema in Dance and Music’ by Anagha Pendse, Sailee Panse, Sailee Oak, Sachin Mule and Chaitanya Kulkarni, and ‘Bollywood Hungama’ by Meghna Naidu.
Margao, on the other hand, will have two separate musical programmes by Kavita Krishnamurthy and Sonu Nigam.