CEO accused of bypassing governing council

NT NETWORK
Posted on 2009-01-07
PANAJI- The report of the 39th International Film Festival of India as prepared by the CEO of the Entertainment Society of Goa, Mr Manoj Srivastava seems to have stirred a hornet’s nest, with the Governing Council of the ESG which is the supreme body of the Society objecting that the excerpts from the report were released to the media without being presented before the Council.
The Council has also raised question over the unilateral decision of Mr Srivastava to proceed to Delhi for presenting the report to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting without being cleared by it. Mr Srivastava who was to present the report to the IB Ministry last week, it is learnt, was asked to refrain from doing so by the senior government authorities.
The Chief Secretary, Mr J P Singh, acknowledging that the report will be presented before the Governing Council of the ESG at its meeting scheduled later this month, said that the media was only provided with few of the details in the report. “The entire report will be released to the press only after it is accepted by the Governing Council,” he added.
The report, it was informed, is also devoid of the expenditure details as regards money spent on red carpet event including invitations to the celebrities, funds made available for the cultural programmes planned around the state during the film festival, accommodation and room retention charges of the festival hotels, if any, IFFI TV set up in association with Whistling Woods Film Institute, money made available to the Short Film Centre as well as to the judges of the SFC competition, funds released for promotion of IFFI in other Indian states through the visits of the government and ESG officials, IFFI desk calendar, and so on.
Meanwhile, the Governing Council of the ESG is expected to discuss the 39th edition of the film festival at its forthcoming meeting which it feels had been lacklustre due to the failure of various events including red carpet, IFFI TV, directors’/ actors’ lounge, besides absence of leading film personalities during the festival days.
The Governing Council, it is learnt, will also deliberate upon the repercussions of the absence of popular Hollywood and Bollywood film personalities at the IFFI 2008 which include shying away of the sponsors during the future film festival thus bringing down the revenue of the ESG substantially. Furthermore, the ESG members will raise questions as regards the announcement by the CEO of the ESG about release of a quarterly calendar of the Society that will include a number of film festivals to be held between January and March 2009, without any consent of the Governing Council.
Interestingly, the Goan artists who were supposed to perform at various venues around the state at the cultural programmes planned during the film festival have come out stating that they are yet to receive payments from the ESG for the preparations of their respective programmes. The programmes were cancelled due to the terror attacks in Mumbai and mourning observed by the government due to the demise of the former prime minister, V P Singh. These artists further questioned the rationale behind holding of a party aboard a luxury cruise by the ESG after the end of the IFFI 2008.