Vilasrao Deshmukh's visit to Taj sparks anger among Mumbaikars

Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh Sunday visited the battered Taj hotel here with his actor-son Riteish and filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma.From the Taj, Deshmukh went over to the Oberoi.

Mumbaikers expressed anger that the chief minister chose to go around the Taj hotel with the film maker, adding to the burden of an already stretched out security personnel.

“Is he taking Ram Gopal Varma so that he could make a realistic film one day?” asked Narendra Shinde, an employee of a multinational company.

“This is insensitive said Aruna Anand, a social activist. “Politicians have to exhibit a sense of sensitivity when common people are suffering.”

Shiv Sena MP Bharat Kumar Raut said Deshmukh was trying to promote his son and “bring him in front of the camera”. Ashok Pandit, also a film maker, called it a “security lapse”.

Ram Gopal Varma defended himself.“I have no intention of making a film ever on this issue. My visit was not to make a film on it. Just because it happened to be Riteish, I walked with him. I was not even formally introduced to Vialasrao Deshmukh.”

Seventh Asian Film Festival starts in Mumbai

Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Thursday evening inaugurated the seventh edition of the Asian Film Festival. The festival will showcase 80 films from 20 countries of Asia as well as from Palestine and Egypt and will last for eigtht days.

Deshmukh highlighted Mumbai as a destination for the Asian filmmakers and urged them to explore the city for their cinematic ventures. He said films had evolved greatly over a period of time as the gap between offbeat and commercial films have decreased. He also promised the organisers of the festival - The Asian Film Foundation and The Enlighten Society - of more financial help from the government.

The festival has two competition sections - the best debutant directors and the best fiction films which will be judged by a panel comprising national and international filmmakers. During the inaugural function, Korean director Park Kwang Su was honoured with the Asian Film Culture Award, while P.K. Nair, former director of National Film Archives, received the Satyajit Ray Memorial Award.