Goa Church

The Church has hit out at the Goa government for promoting 'questionable values' by holding events like the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) compared to religious events that promote 'love peace and harmony'.
The criticism comes ahead of the Nov 22-Dec 2 IIFI, which coincides with a popular saint's feast in Goa.
Fr Savio Barreto, the Rector of the Basilica of Bom Jesus, said the Goa government was dragging its feet over resolving the clash of dates of the feast of St Francis Xavier, Goa's patron saint, and IFFI.
'I personally feel this is a clash of values. Here we are trying to promote love, peace and unity, whereas the government is supporting events that promote questionable values,' Fr Barreto said.
'It is this clash of values that is destroying our religious heritage and is trivialising it. Why can't the government see this and change the dates?' Fr Barreto said.
IFFI is by far the biggest government organised event in Goa.
The Novena of the Spanish saint's feast begins Nov 24 in preparation for the feast Dec 3. The feast is by far Goa's single largest congregation of people with more than three lakh people congregating over a 10-day event, in memory of the saint who brought Christianity to Goa.
Fr Barreto claims he had first written to the government in 2006 seeking a change of dates saying the 'energy of the government' was directed towards IFFI whereas the energy of the people was on the feast.
He said that because of the film festival, the state runs out of metal detectors, forcing police to put up fewer gates open at the Basilica of Bom Jesus, the venue of the feast, leading to further crowds.
Goa has been the venue of IFFI since 2004. Since then, IFFI has been organised on the same dates as that of the novena of the feast of St Francis Xavier.
What has peeved the church authorities more is that prior to Goa being made the venue, IFFI in New Delhi was organised during the final week of October.
In a statement to the media, director of Information and Publicity Menino Peres said the dates were decided at the 'international level' and there was little the state government could do about it.

Smita's ghost

If you don't believe in ghosts, then this is not the story for you. There's an eerie story secretly doing the rounds among the cast and crew of 'My Friend Pinto'.
Smita and Prateik
Apparently a lot of the crew members, including Prateik, director Raghav Dhar and producer Sanjay Leela Bhansali, felt late actress Smita Patil's presence while shooting with her son Prateik.
'We don't know what it was. But we certainly felt something. Smita inspired me to sign Prateik. I was a big fan of hers,' Bhansali says.
Says a crew member: 'At times it was chilling. Not just Prateik or the director, many of us felt a presence. We don't know what or who it was. But there was definitely something there.'
Prateik has said in an interview to IANS that he would like to break away from the constant comparisons with his mother. However that seems unlikely considering Smita is a constant in her son's life.
'We felt as though she was watching over us all through. It was more than uncanny,' says a source close to the film.
'It came to a point where we began to feel she was physically present during the shooting. We don't know how close Prateik feels to his mother at other shootings. But here she was with us all through. We firmly believe Smita was watching over her son,' says the source.
For a sequence where Prateik's character had to talk about his mother, the young actor expressed reservations.
'Prateik didn't want to do the scene where his character talks about his mother. We convinced him it was necessary. When Prateik finally did the sequence he went into a kind of trance while speaking his lines,' says the source.
Speaking of the sequence Bhansali said: 'Prateik was so close to his own mother at that point that we could almost see her standing next to Prateik.'
'It was clear that he was addressing his own mother. He finally broke down while talking about his mother,' the source adds.
'Though I didn't have the good fortune of working with Smita, I saw her in every gesture in Prateik. He is uncannily like Smita. The title and Prateik's name in the film - Pinto - came from a Smita starrer 'Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai'. Smita was there throughout the making of the film,' Bhansali says.

Sleep with me

It seems that the casting couch controversy is back to haunt many bigwigs of Bollywood yet again. ‘Dear Mr Bollywood’, a book which is being circulated in the ongoing Mumbai Film Festival has named many industry veterans. Written by a Jerusalem-born, New York raised woman Rina Golan, the book has named Subhash Ghai, Anup Jalota, Anees Bazmee and even Dr Ali Irani among others as asking for sexual favours.
Golan however claims that the book is not about about her bad experiences in Bollywood. She further claims that the book is about her favourite Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan and how she fell in love with the industry because of him.