Goa govt to co-own IPR of IFFI

The Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry is open to the idea of sharing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of International Film Festival of India (IFFI) with the Goa government, a senior official said here on Friday.

“Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF) is willing to share IPR with Goa government which has been hosting IFFI since 2004,” Manoj Srivastava, Chief Executive Officer, Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) told PTI.

ESG is a Goa government-formed body which hosts IFFI annually in the capital city of Panaji.

Mr. Srivastava, referring to recent meeting between I&B secretary Raghu Menon and Goa government representatives, said that DFF accepts ESG as a credible film body.

“During the meeting it was decided that IFFI should be co—owned by DFF and ESG. They are willing to share ownership of IPR with ESG, which means they consider ESG as a film body which can deliver,” he said.

Goa’s capability to host a film festival of such magnitude were questioned in the film circles when state took over the festival from Delhi in 2004.

The ESG officials conceded that there were some initial clashes between both the organisational bodies when festival faced problems in the state.

Since IFFI 2007, ESG has been given more responsibilities including curating certain sections of the festival, which is annually held between November-December in the state.

“The views about ESG expressed by I&B ministry is acceptance of the fact that we are capable of handling the responsibilities,” Mr. Srivastava said.

He contended that senior I&B ministry officials are of the opinion that although there is a division of work between ESG and DFF, there should not be a compartamentalisation.

“All should be working as one team for IFFI,” Srivastava said about the meeting between I&B and Goa officials.

In yet another positive step, the I&B ministry has also mulled over the possibility of doing away with annual Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between centre and Goa, he said.

“We may have clear guidelines over the work related to IFFI. However in future, we can explore whether we can do away with formal MoU,” Mr. Srivastava said.