Kolkata: The 32nd Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), scheduled to inaugurate on the Victoria Memorial ground on Dec 16, has initiated discussions beyond its film lineup.During the initial planning meeting at Nandan on Friday, officials not only proposed introducing an Uttam Kumar Lifetime Achievement Award, increasing prize money for Bengali and Indian panorama sections, but also debated potential updates to the festival’s official logo and the Royal Bengal trophy. Weighing in on the discussions, filmmaker Sandip Ray confirmed to TOI on Saturday that he was open to redesigning a new KIFF logo from the original Calcutta Film Festival (CFF) logo he once created, provided the original artwork was made available to him.Film industry representatives and politicians, including Mithun Chakraborty, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Agnimitra Paul, Purnima Chakraborty, Saumitra Mohan, Papiya Adhikari, Rupa Ganguly, Rudranil Ghosh, Hiranmoy Chattopadhyaya, Sarbori Mukherjee, Dhruba Banerjee, Locket Chatterjee, Jeet Madnani, Sekhar Das, Padmanava Dasgupta, Churni Ganguly, Sudeshna Roy, Haranath Chakraborty, Premendu Bikash Chaki, June Maliah and Anjana Basu, attended the meeting.“The red carpet will be held at Victoria Memorial. We are approaching three top international stars to attend KIFF. I hope one of them will attend. I will also invite top Bollywood heroes I know. The programme will begin with ‘Vande Mataram’. An Uttam Kumar Lifetime Achievement award will be introduced this year,” said KIFF chief adviser Mithun, detailing the festival’s rollout.The award money for the best film in Bengali panorama has been increased from Rs 7.5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. The award money for the best film in the Indian panorama has been increased from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh.Ireland has been chosen as the focus country. Cinematographer-turned-director Chaki confirmed the consensus regarding international representation: “Everyone present agreed on this.”But disagreements surfaced on the festival’s logo. “Some people mentioned the logo and if it required a change. Two options were shown. One was multi-coloured that was similar in spirit with the logo of the International Film Festival of India. The other opted for the saffron colour,” said an insider. Discussions soon turned to the origins of the current logo. Participants said the current design was introduced in 2015 following a public contest. The festival committee chose it after the name of the festival was changed from CFF to KIFF. Discussions shifted to the festival’s roots and its inaugural emblem. Originally established as the Calcutta Film Festival, the event’s first logo was designed by Sandip Ray. “Calcutta’s name was changed to Kolkata and subsequently, the festival’s name was changed from CFF to KFF and then, KIFF. Consequently, participants proposed approaching Ray to recreate and modernise his original artwork,” said the insider.“If I get the original artwork and have the time, I am more than eager to redesign the logo now,” Sandip told TOI.
