Tony Tharakan
Premieres and controversiesseem to go together at the 36th International FilmFestival of India. The hubbub over 'Parzania' and'Apaharan' had hardly died down when the premiere offilmmaker Aditya Bhattacharya's 'Dubai Return' got off to a rocky start today (Dec 3).
The screening had been delayed by 15 minutes and the restive audience was in no mood to accord latecomers Bhattacharya, producer Manya Patil,filmstars Irrfan Khan and Ritu Shivpuri a patienthearing.
When an audience member vehemently asked the organisers to do away with the presentation ceremony,director Bhattacharya lost his cool and asked the protestor to "Go home." Organisers managed to salvage the situation andthe screening went on as scheduled but the director'soutburst managed to rub several people the wrong way.
Defending himself at a press conference laterthis evening, Bhattacharya said the man's behaviour had upset him. "A movie theatre is like a temple and that man was disturbing the sanctity of the temple for me," he said.
IFFI 2005 has been plagued by similar instancesof world premieres being beset by altercations. Earlier this week, 'Parzania' a controversialfilm based on the post-Godhra riots led to a fracasinside the auditorium after some persons alleged thefilm was biased and portrayed the Hindu community in a bad light.
Filmstars Sarika and Om Puri could only stand andwatch as certain members of the 300-strong audienceraised slogans against director Rahul Dholakiafollowing the screening. Two days ago, irate scribes and spectators ventedtheir anger on 'Apaharan' director Prakash Jha, actors Ajay Devgan and Bipasha Basu after they arrived anhour late for the screening.
The commotion only ended after Jha, Devgan and Basu apologised to the audience and left the auditorium.
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