From day one, Sunil Shetty's GIFA has been riddled with controversies.
In fact, reports filtering in from Malaysia, where the awards were held, have been far from flattering. From airline tickets to hotel accommodation and seating arrangements, the function left a lot of people unhappy.
And we're not talking about the invitees and performers, but the jury members, too.
Smita Thackeray, who was one of the jury members, minces no words when she gives vent to her feelings. "I don't care if they don't invite me next year. The truth is sour but someone has to get up and take a stand."
Unprofessional
Says the fiery producer, "I will never be part of this awards function again. GIFA is nothing but an event management company out to make money. I have nothing against them making money, but why use awards as a platform?
Why get into this whole charade of an awards function? Nothing was as it should've been. The only thing that mattered to the organisers was to give importance to the stars present. Everything else was secondary. It was a complete sham."
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Abhishek Bachchan performing at GIFA |
Smita has a long association with Sunil Shetty, whose Popkorn Entertainment produced the show, but that doesn't make a difference to her ire.
"Sunil may be a nice person but this function was mismanagement at its best. I have never had such a bad experience."
The producer is furious about promises that the organisers failed to keep. "The promos of my film, Kaisay Kahein, were to debut at the function. Weeks before the event, we kept asking them about the format and the length but they were unresponsive.
Finally, they told us that all promos would last for a minute. We made our promo accordingly and gave it to them. But when the show finally took place, my promo wasn't aired. I spend six lakhs on making it, and it was very unprofessional of them to knock it down."
I think the organisers did a good job...sparing the audience from seeing President Hussein's film....but I am sure Chui-mui and her pet Mohit are mighty annoyed ...but I am happyπ
this is an article from mid-day...it seems the organisers aired other film promos but not this one....Ha,Ha,Haπ