Ladakhi filmmakers give LIFF 2014 a miss for local fest

Ladakhi filmmakers, who showed active participation in the last edition of Ladakh International Film Festival (LIFF), chose to skip the event this year as they are preparing for 'Kalachakra', a Dalai Lama initiation for world peace.
A total of 15 filmmakers had showcased their movies in the last edition of the festival but this time there has been no representation from them.
"Ladakhi movie makers are not full time filmmakers and this time they stayed away because they were busy with elections and Kalachakara," Melwyn Williams, director of LIFF, said.
The picturesque valley is gearing up for the 12-day festival to be initiated by the Dalai Lama.

Bollywood celebrities Deepti Naval, Govind Nihalani, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Shilpa Shukla, Anurag Kashyap and Rajit Kapoor attended the third edition of the festival.
Absence of local filmmakers and people from the festival have also been taken noticed by them.

"It is sad that local turnout has been so less. We have to rethink on things because there definitely exists a gap," Rajit, who visited the festival for the first time, said.
Whereas, Nihalani, who heads the jury for LIFF, feels the festival needs government support to make it spread among people.
There have been reports that the local filmmakers want the festival of their own instead of having filmmakers from outside the city.

When asked about Mehra said, "I agree agreed to the view and I feel the festival needs to be more inclusive rather than exclusive."
Even the residents of the city did not attend the screening of the films.