Lots of no-shows at film awards event

The second Indian International Film Festival of South Africa, held at The Lyric theatre, Gold Reef City, on Saturday last week, was a damp squib.

Despite Johannesburg's sweltering heat, a few brave women donned elaborately decorated saris. They looked radiant, but they had to constantly dab away beads of perspiration from their faces.

Excited to see what the awards ceremony was all about, the guests gathered in the foyer to enjoy icy drinks. About 150 people attended the event, which was hosted by Rajiv Terwadkar, director of Utkarsh Projects, an India-based business group.

Local soapie actor Sive Matiwane joined Indian actress Juie Barve to host the ceremony, which began with the national anthems of South Africa and India. This was followed by a prayer devoted to Lord Ganesha.

Terwadkar said the aim of the awards was to begin a cultural revolution shared by India and South Africa.

He tested the waters last year with the Merathi Film Festival and realised there was potential to explore something bigger.

High commissioner of India Virendra Gupta congratulated Terwadkar for hosting the event and said he was inspired by the aim of bringing together the Indian and South African film industries.

Singing sensation Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam, internationally known as SPB, was honoured at the ceremony and was one of the few award recipients who were present at the event.

The awards recognised excellence in the Indian and South African film industry, but sadly the majority of the winners failed to show up.

I began to wonder whether they had been told they were going to receive an award.

Terwadkar said he informed the winners only a day before the event and the Indian winners could not get visas.

Terwadkar's team accepted most of the awards on behalf of the winners.

There were vibrant and energetic fusion dance performances by local dancers, and Marathi singer and actress Amruta Subhash kept the audience entertained with Bollywood and Marathi songs.

I expected a lot more from the function, but it failed to deliver. It was amateurish, and the fact that the organisers were not aware that hardly any of the winners had shown up for the ceremony was concerning. Better luck to Terwadkar next year.