Thiruvananthapuram: What has Hollywood's iconic character Rambo got to do with IFFK, which promotes offbeat films from developing countries? The connection dates back to the days in the run up to the formation of the festival.
In the 90s the only window to the world cinema for Kerala was screenings by film societies, Chithralekha studio, Filmotsav organized by the center, PRD shows and screenings supported by Pune Film Archives and so on.
So it was the KSFDC chairman P. Govinda Pillai, who put forth the idea of a film festival. The budget speech presented by Vishwanatha Menon, the finance minister of the Nayanar government in 1991, also mentioned film festival.
In his speech Viswanatha Menon said, “International cinema is controlled by super powers. Youngsters who are thrilled watching Rambo shooting down poor peasants in the field need to be exposed to films dealing with the stark realities of life. So, we need a film festival which screens movies from third world countries reflecting the lives of peoples of those nations. So, an outlay of Rs 10 lakh is being earmarked for the festival.”
However, it took four more years after Viswanatha Menon’s budget speech for IFFK to become a reality. K Karunakaran, who was chief minister, sanctioned Rs. 10 lakh for organizing the festival to celebrate the 100 years of cinema. K Jayakumar was the Managing Director of KSFDC then.