Rubiya Shaikh From Panaji Goa.

Panaji, Aug 28: The Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) is asking for more share in holding the international film festival of India (IFFI).

Although the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in respect of this years IFFI is not accepted by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, he believes that it will be done once the delegation headed by Chief Minister Digambar Kamat visits Delhi after the assembly session is over", said Manoj Shrivastava , CEO of ESG

"From this year we are hoping to take charge of four main programmes , which earlier have been handled by Directorate Of Film Festivals," (DFF) the CEO OF ESG stated.

"We are expecting 40-50 percent of charge of the festival and are asking for the Competition section, Cinema of the World, Special Section, and Registration on Datacal  System. We have already received approval for the Indian Premier section and the for the Short Film Centre," Shrivastava told in a press conference while briefing them about the deliberations of the Society`s Governing Board`s meeting held yesterday.

"Goa has all the facilities and infrastructure and has the capacity to hold a bigger festival than IFFI," he added.

He also disclosed that ESG is geared up to launch the Short Film Centre during IFFI 2008.

" It will first in time in India and is brainchild of ESG — a business platform for documentary filmmakers to project their films which are below 30 minutes duration and are planning to have 500 documentary films for this section," Shrivastava said,

According to the CEO of ESG the centre will be a meeting point of documentary filmmakers, organizers of the film festivals, buyers and funding agencies.

"It is to bridge gap among them. Around 5,000 documentary films are produced in India and in Goa too the approximate figure is 50-100 but they are not marketed properly and hence this scheme will help help filmmakers to showcase their movies and an opportunity too to sell their films", he stated.

Meanwhile to promote the brand of Goa ESG`s governing body is participating in "Cinemascape" a business conference which will be held later at Mumbai in October 2008.

It also is planning to start a film club called "Goa Cine Phile" with a membership cost and the members will automatically get accredited as IFFI delegates.

Meanwhile, the Governing Council yesterday discussed about the raising fees for the film shooting at public places in the state.

"We had a meeting with the line producers of Goa and came up to a decision of raising the fee from 6,000 to 10,000 per day. Out of this will be paid to the respective Village Panchayat and confirmed that local film producers are exempted from the charges,"  Shrivastava further added.

Speaking about the ccontribution of Goa towards the Film festival he said that, the state is contributing about 10 to 12 crores whereas Directorate if Film Festivals (DFF) is contributing 2.75 crores