Less complaints have been heard on crowd control at this edition of the IFFK, unlike some previous editions when all hell broke loose at shows of much-hyped films. On Wednesday afternoon, the situation came close to that at the Tagore theatre, when the crowd waiting in the unreserved queue to catch the last show of South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite , went wild.
Those waiting in the queue alleged that the organisers and volunteers had allowed too many guests to get in, leading to the seats becoming full soon after those in the reserved queue had got in. The situation threatened to go out of hand as there was much pushing and shoving, and hurling of abuses, with the volunteers struggling to keep out the crowd who were trying to topple the barricades. Even though police personnel were called in, they were few in number and were unable to control the large crowd. Later, Kerala State Chalachitra Academy Chairman Kamal came out and appealed to the crowd to be calm, promising one more show of the film.
The academy also issued a press release saying that media persons having duty pass should stand in the queue like the rest of the delegates, after it was found that a few of them had gone in through the reserved queue. The volunteers who were at the gates said that the number of delegates in the unreserved queue was too huge.
Even as the shouting matches were going on, one delegate was heard saying: “The delegates need to be more understanding of the plight of volunteers. Why do they make such a hue and cry over missing one film or the other? After all, some of these films including Parasite are already available in file-sharing sites.”
