Children's Film Festival postponed suddenly

Those who went with high expectations to watch movies were in for a rude shock when they were told there was no such screening scheduled

Those who went with high expectations to watch movies to be screened at the city's Olympia theatre as part of the International Children's Film Festival were in for a rude shock when they were told there was no such screening scheduled.

Due to lack of proper communication and misunderstanding between Children's India, the organizer of the International Children's Film Festival, and theater owners, the screening of movies scheduled to be held in five districts on Wednesday has been postponed indefinitely on late night of Tuesday.

Following the announcements made in the media, some disheartened children and the confused parents accompanying them along with the general public were seen asking theater employees where exactly were the movies being screened.

When Express, contacted Children's India President NR Nanjundegowda, he said that due to certain technical problems screening of movies has been postponed in all other places except Bangalore, where movies will be screened from Thursday. He added that steps are being taken to provide better screening facilities in future and presently the screening has been postponed in all Centers.

Owner of Olympia Theater, Sanath Kumar expressed surprise that the Children's India without seeking any prior approval either from him or from the theater manager for screening the children's movies in his theater, went ahead and announced his theater’s name.

Most theaters have been modernised in tune with the changing times, replacing old projectors screening film rolls with the latest state-of the art UFO projectors that screens signals received directly from satellite. Thereby some theaters express unable to screen the print versions.

Though Organizer's offer to provide DVD projectors to screen print movies by hooking upto the existing sound system in the cinema halls, its learnt that several theater owners refuse meddling with their existing setup in fear of unaccepted problems in system.

Nanjundegowda said in eight theaters of Bangalore, conversion equipments are being used to screen the movies without tampering the existing setup, while there are some problems to use such convertors in other centers.

According to sources, several theater owners refuse to let out their theaters to screen movies, as they will not be getting anything in return for the utilising their services.

Children's India had announced screening of children's movies in Bangalore, Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli and Dharward from January 9 to 13. Now, the movies will be screened only in Bangalore from January 10.