SHILLONG, MAR 3: The Khasi Films & Music Welfare Association (KMFWA) and the Society for Performing Arts Development (SPADE) have decided to boycott the ongoing Indian Panaroma Film Festival currently held in Shillong.
The decision was taken at a joint meeting of the two organizations held on Monday.
The associations felt that such festivals are of important to promote film making in the state, however the Khasi film making industry itself is struggling for its long term continuity.
“We have decided to boycott the film festival due to the lack of commitment on the part of the stakeholders to address to the problem of film makers especially when local films are not at all being screened in cinema halls due to huge amount of fees being charged by hall owners and lack of co-operation from the hall owners to encourage screening local films,” the KMFWA and SPADE presidents Bankhraw Sohtun and Wankitbok Pohshna said in a statement.
They informed that on May last year, the Deputy Commissioner East Khasi Hills district through an order had prohibited screening of local films in cinema halls owing to complaints from certain section that such local films are not being censored which kept film makers in the dark as the only option left to have a particular film censored is to get CBFC rating which in itself is expensive.
Though the association said that no doubt the CBFC rating is a must, but when films are not easily made available for screening then opting for getting a film censored remains baseless.
Castigating the state government for failing to initiate steps to improve the infrastructures for film making in the state, the associations said that every film maker would indeed expect to produce good films from the state; however there is no state run film city to address the equipment constrains that each film maker looks forward to use while making a film.
“Leaving each production house to depend on equipments hired out from Guwahati, which is again expensive,” the association leaders said.
The associations are of the opinion besides organizing such film festivals, the government should also address the above issues which is hindering film making in the state.
The association felt if Meghalaya is to be made a film destination, infrastructure should firstly be in place, since no film maker from outside the state would be willing to invest in the state as that would cost them dearly.
A delegation comprising of members of both the association will soon meet chief minister Mukul Sangma to submit a memorandum on the grievances faced by the film makers of the state.- By Our Reporter
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