Gaurav Madan’s Barah by Barah ‘selected’ and then dumped at BIFFes; heads to IFFT and IFFK now

Filmmaker received an official mail stating the film was to be screened in the Asian competition section, only to have a volunteer call to say it was a mistake

Still from Barah by Barah

It appears that namma Natesh Hegde’s debut feature Pedro is not the only film to ruffle feathers at the ongoing Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes). Independent filmmaker Gaurav Madan’s Barah by Barah, which has been travelling the world on the festival circuit, also had a similar fate and didn’t make it, but only after a faux pas by the organizers of the fest.

Ahead of the start of the festival, Gaurav received an official confirmation mail from BIFFes, stating that his film had been selected under the Asia competition section of the 13th Bengaluru international Film Festival and requesting him to send a digital print of his movie in response to said mail. However, by the next morning, he received a frantic call from a volunteer at the festival telling him that the film was not selected and that the mail was sent ‘by mistake’.

In a social media post about this not-so-inadvertent ‘mistake’, Gaurav posted a screenshot of the mail he received and wrote, “I got an email from Bengaluru International Film Festival informing me that Barah by Barah has been selected in ‘Asian Competition’ of the 2022 edition (refer to the screenshot of the mail below). Next morning a flustered volunteer called me to inform that he ‘mistakenly’ sent the email and that my film hasn’t actually made the shortlist. Really?? Even a kindergarten festival learning to crawl in its very first edition doesn’t do that!! Astonishingly my Vimeo plus informed me about a few views of the film screener in ‘Bengaluru’ on the same very morning. Clearly someone who ‘mattered’ saw the film late and realised its subject matter might not go well with the political leanings of ‘some others who mattered’! I hear Natesh Hegde’s Pedro was snubbed and so was Abhilash Shetty’s Koli Taal. All these films have something in common obviously and it isn’t hard to guess! But the biggest stoop of the low was making a volunteer make the difficult call! **They even bungled up film’s name in the congratulatory mail - ‘BAHAR BY BAHAR’ and just like that our film was ‘BAHAR’ from the festival!!”

Like Natesh’s Pedro, Gaurav’s film has also quickly found another taker and is actually giving the former competition for the KW Joseph Award at the International Film Festival of Thrissur, later this month, as well as the International Film Festival of Kerala in Thiruvanananthapuram. The film, incidentally, is about a ‘death’ photographer at the Manikarnika ghat in Varanasi struggling to make ends meet in the age of digital cameras and smartphones, among others.

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