Celeb protest against poor facilities at IFFK

It’s a few days ago that a handful of celebrities staged a protest at one of the IFFK venues, Nila theatre, demanding reservation of seats for them to watch films. While delegates at the venue accused them of occupying seats without queuing up and gaining ‘backdoor entries’ with friends, celebs said that steps were not taken at the fest, unlike in the past, to allocate a few seats for the film fraternity.
Organising committee member and renowned dubbing artist Bhagyalakshmi, who was among the protesters, explains, “We decided to raise our voices because seats were not properly allocated for organising committee members and film personalities at the fest. As a practice, seats were reserved for us at film fests in the past. We have also been demanding a separate theatre screening of films — at least the competition films and after delegates watch them — for celebrities, for long.
In Nila theatre, delegates who queued up for hours to watch the Iranian film The President, entered the hall only to find the seats occupied — mostly by those viewers who stayed back after the previous show or entered trespassing the queue, and the committee members. That is when a ruckus got triggered. While we are not blaming the delegates, we demand allocation of seats for film personalities, who have contributed to the fest and our industry. Many actors and technicians had also complained about having been made to queue up to watch films with the general public.”
Praveen M, a delegate at the venue, says, “Those who entered the cinema hall after queuing up for hours were enraged and started shouting slogans, as they saw many seats being occupied by the film personalities and their friends. Only a few of them left the theatre as the situation worsened, but the screening was not smooth even later, as people broke into arguments at various corners of the theatre.”
The protesters were later contacted by other committee members saying that the Academy has decided to act on their complaints, post which they dispersed. Filmmaker and council member G S Vijayan says, “I have spoken to Academy chairman RajeevNath and he has given his assurance that necessary action will be taken in the next meeting, and the request of celebs for reserved seats will be prioritized.”