No wonder, a group of eight young, talented Pakistani filmmakers were last month waiting in the wings to participate in a film festival in Ahmedabad for which they had sent their entries.
However, the Indian embassy proved to be the villain of the piece by denying them visa to attend Alpavirama2011, a three-day South Asian Short & Documentary Film Festival organised at the famed National Institute of Design (NID) as part of its golden jubilee celebrations.
Though they could not make it to the rare fete, three of their productions bagged topmost awards—Rs 15,000 in cash, a trophy and a certificate--giving a slap on the face of the bureaucrats who were obsessed with red tapism and had refused visa to these creative bright sparks citing ‘security reasons’ While ‘Kalu’, directed by Naveed Anjum from Pakistan, was adjudged the best film in the fiction category, ‘Missing Vultures’....
