The 16th Bengaluru International Film Festival wrapped up on March 8, but the buzz around Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar’s comments during the opening ceremony is still going strong. He mentioned he knows how to "tighten the nuts and bolts" of the Kannada film industry, which was in response to the disappointing turnout of celebrities. Filmmaker Dayal Padmanabhan, who was at the festival, shared his thoughts on the matter.

In a chat with the media, Dayal expressed that he doesn’t blame DK Shivakumar for what he said, but he felt the timing was off, especially with international guests present. “It would have been better if DK had spoken to Sadhu Kokila, the chairman of the Chalanachitra Academy, after the event to discuss what went wrong. He should also have reached out to members of the Producers’ and Artistes’ Associations to get a clearer picture,” Dayal pointed out. 

Dayal pointed out that Sadhu Kokila's statement about everyone in Kannada cinema being invited was misleading. He mentioned, “Sadhu Kokila claimed in an interview that it’s tough to invite everyone personally, but that’s not the case; it’s actually pretty simple. Take the Chennai Film Festival, for example. They manage to pull in a ton of stars every year, even though they don’t handle nearly as many attendees as BIFFes does. For Sadhu Kokila, inviting around 500 industry folks shouldn’t be a big deal.”

He went on to say that all Sadhu really needed to do was personally invite 50 to 100 people and then reach out to the rest. Dayal criticized the event's organization, saying it was a shortcoming on the part of the Academy chairman. He added that aside from the opening, the festival felt quite chaotic overall. “If they had dedicated even a small portion of the effort that goes into film planning, it would have turned out much better,” he noted.

The filmmaker pointed out that the Kannada film industry is missing strong leadership these days. Back when Dr. Rajkumar was alive, he was the go-to guy, and everyone respected his decisions. Nowadays, we don’t have that kind of authority. Sure, there are folks like Shivanna (Shivarajkumar) who could step up, but he’s dealing with health issues. If you check out the next generation of actors, it’s all about ego clashes, and no one wants to hear each other out. For the industry to really succeed, everyone needs to put their egos aside and focus on improving Kannada cinema together.

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