50th edition of IFFI will be India’s showcase to the world: Festival director Chaitanya Prasad

With a couple of days left for the 49th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Panaji, Goa to conclude, the ministry of information and broadcasting has already started work on the next year’s golden jubilee edition.

Confirming the same to Cinestaan.com, Chaitanya Prasad, additional director general, directorate of film festivals and IFFI, said, “Work for 2019 has already started. Plans for next year is a work in progress. That is something that my [I&B] minister [Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore], [I&B] secretary [Amit Khare] will be taking up.”

While the official figure of delegates attending this year’s festival is not out, the number is pegged at 6,000, which is "much more than last year", Prasad said.

In a video message posted on social media in the run-up to the 50th edition, Prasad had said that the festival offers a perfect blend of creativity, cinematic diversity, innovation, diversified rich content, wide stakeholder participation, different shades of acting as well as a perfect blend of issues, themes, and ideas.

“This year's IFFI is extremely special because it is a run-up to the golden jubilee of IFFI next year,” he had said.

Elaborating on the plans for the 2019 edition, Prasad, "There are lessons learnt from the current eight festival days. We are taking forward the good practices that we need to put in place. We are discussing it with people who have come here, they are giving their suggestions… The very fact that we have begun something shows that we are going to be very proactive of how we want to further improve. Next year will be a very big event. In the sense, that it’s the 50th year of IFFI would mean an absolutely mega, super-mega event. It would be India’s showcase to the world."

Full interview will be up soon.