The campaign to save the festival, organised by Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI), has gained momentum on the social networking sites. The organisers of the festival, which is scheduled to take place from October 14 to 21, have also appealed to cinema lovers for help.
Support has come forth from Cinestaan Film Company, promoted by Anand Mahindra and Rohit Khattar, producer Manish Mundra, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani and Hansal Mehta.
"Every crisis makes you stronger and presents a bigger opportunity. We are trying to go through this crisis and emerge stronger. The required amount is not collected yet. We will take a final decision on Monday. We have to collect at least Rs 4.5 crore to see the festival through otherwise we will have to do some on-course correction," festival director Srinivasan Narayan told PTI.
"Anurag Kashyap sent a message that he will contribute once he comes from America. The support has been growing. Actually, now the film industry is taking the ownership of the festival. They were only participants earlier. Now they are going to be involved in a big way. The content will always remain independent. We will see more footfalls from the industry," he said.
The festival's five-year partnership with Reliance Entertainment ended last year.
"Anand (Mahindra) and I believe that a Festival as important as this should not belong to one sponsor or studio," said Khattar while making an appeal to the industry to step in.