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IFFI Goa needs it’s own Majha Ghar
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IFFI Goa needs it’s own Majha Ghar

Uncategorized November 14, 2025 , by

The film festival has come a long way from the time late Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar envisioned it, infused life into it, to its current debilitated state. Somewhere, along the way, it lost direction

In 2004, there was just one of the double-engined governments in Goa. In New Delhi, late Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was heading a BJP-led coalition.
Late Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had formed the first BJP government in the State. He requested the then Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Sushma Swaraj to let Goa exclusively host International Film Festival of India (IFFI) that year.
Much to Parrikar’s shock and surprise, Swaraj readily agreed. Soon, reality hit him like a tonne of bricks. Goa was woefully lacking in infrastructure. The few cinema houses – Ashok (now Samrat Ashok) and National – in Panjim were not up to even Bombay standards.
Parrikar took on the massive challenge of creating basic infrastructure for the festival. The old Panjim market was demolished and, at public cost, a four-screen INOX multiplex was built in four months flat. It was commissioned just in time for the event.
The Kala Academy was renovated at a cost over Rs50 crore. The Campal-Miramar Road was given a facelift. The Dayanand Bandodkar stadium at Campal was dismantled to create a large hall for IFFI’s opening and closing ceremonies. On second thought, it was abandoned as there was little time for it.
Instead, a huge air-conditioned tent was created just for the opening and closing ceremony. Parrikar thought big. As all the VVIP delegates were to be accommodated at Taj-Aguada, Parrikar thought of commuting by sea to the river front Kala Academy. A fancy jetty was built, but never used.
The newly formed Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) was entrusted to Parrikar-confidante Sanjit Rodriques – a chef-turned-civil-servant. For the masses, who were mostly excluded from IFFI that was limited to delegates, there was Bollywood Yamaha in Caranzalem, organised by Mumbai-based event management firm Wizcraft International Entertainment.
Under the supervision of Shekhar Salker, everything was ready in time. All thanks to micromanagement of the perfectionist CM – down to the cleaning of the drain next to INOX. Incidentally, INOX is a subsidiary of Indian Oxygen – a Gujarat-based company – to whom the multiplex was leased.
The opening ceremony of the first IFFI in Goa, which my wife Tara and I had the privilege of attending, was at Kala Academy. The chief guest was Amitabh Bachchan, whose Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) had not yet started.
The opening film was Reese-Witherspoon-starrer Vanity Fair made by none other than Mira Nair, who has also made Salam Bombay and Monsoon Wedding. Today, she is in news for her son Zohran Mamdani being elected as the Mayor of New York.
I am a veteran of film festivals. I attended the first competitive film festival in 1978, where Godfather was the opening film. I had been invited to present a paper on parallel cinema. At the seminar, late B R Chopra – the famous Bollywood director and producer – called cinema Randi, sparking a boycott led by the late film director and screenwriter Mrinal Sen.
For Goans, whose staple of movies did not go beyond Bollywood blockbusters in dingy theatres, IFFI was a sumptuous treat. A choice of over 200 of world’s best films were screened from nine in the morning to midnight, across seven screens.
Not to mention the red hot and uncensored films. With Tara obsessively watching four films a day back-to-back, I became one of many IFFI widowers. Those were the good old or bad old days before everything became digital.
You had to queue up to get your tickets for films, you had checked for watching, despite it being covered in the delegate fee. Then, you had to queue up before the auditorium to take your seats, which were first-come-first-served. Film enthusiasts watched movies, interspersed with red-carpet events, all day.
IFFI Goa is now a full-fledged adult. The forthcoming IFFI is the 21st to be held in Goa. Regrettably, the festival still does not have any dedicated infrastructure. There is uncertainty over the opening ceremony as the traditional venue Shyama Prasad Mukerji stadium has been booked by FIDE – The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation.
The Kala Academy – yesteryear’s nerve centre of creative activities – is a skeleton of its old self after a shoddy renovation. Every year, a bit of IFFI’s sheen dims. If it was meant to assume the stature of the famed international film festival in Cannes, the French city on the French Riviera, it not getting anywhere near it. Unless, of course, someone resuscitates it back to its old glory.

Iffi 2025 Highlights 
The focus in Iffi This year is on Japan a powerhouse of Legends like Akhi Kurshova What is new this year is a special section on Debut Women Film maker Among the World cinema in focus will be films from Australia and Brazil There will be retrospectives of Bengali icon Ritwick Ghatalk
Innox Panjim will be the main screening  Centre supplemented by Ashok and Samarat No screening at largest auditorium Kala Academy There will also screenings in Ravindra Bhavan in Madgao For the Janata there will be screenings on the Miramar and Colva beach’s only of popular censored block busters.
Openining Ceremony on Stage outside GMC will only for 500 vip and Vvip with limited seating for delegates Media Cultural Programmes and Carnivl fĺot parades for Janate Tami Nadu Minister Murugan has chosen Rajini Kant as chief guest for Closing ceremony Rajini has completed 50 years No konkani film in competitive section or indian Panorma Special Screeing of Rajenders talaks Mod asuna Asecon award winning film ignored.

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