Industry federations have decided to shun IFFI in 2015 citing 'no invitation' this year
Amitabh Bachchan
Organisers of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) have invited the wrath of two film federations, something that could prove costly to them.
Amitabh Bachchan lights the lamp to inaugurate the ongoing 45th International Film Festival of India
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The Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) and All India Film Employees Confederation (AIFEC) have taken offense to not being invited for the fest and decided to register its protest by boycotting the event next year. Kamlesh Pandey, president of FWICE, says, "The two federations have decided to boycott the IFFI in 2015. That, in effect, means members belonging to the 22 craft unions affiliated to us will not attend the festival."
He adds that the decision has been communicated to all the affiliate unions. Pandey says traditionally, the FWICE and the AIFEC office bearers are invited and hosted by the IFFI every year. "This time, they did not even invite the AIFEC president, let alone the FWICE president representing 22 crafts of the film industry. They also did not even respond to our mail asking them to enlighten us with the reason. If they do not consider us important enough to deserve their respect and invitation, why shouldn’t the FWICE and the AIFEC abstain from IFFI events? The IFFI has shown disrespect not only to the apex bodies of the workers and technicians of the industry but also to a time-honoured tradition," he rues.
There have been couple of instances in the past when Bollywood almost boycotted IFFI. The first time around was in 2007 when Film Federation of India (FFI) protested against Goa being the venue and the Bollywood segment not being included in the event schedule. Filmmakers Shakti Samanta and D Rama Naidu had allegedly been asked to prove their credentials.
In 2011, there was an uproar when the Directorate of Film Festival left out FFI from their guest list. FFI is one of the apex bodies of the industry which decides on India’s Oscar entries.
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