GUWAHATI: Though the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Assam government left no stone unturned to market the Filmfare Awards and claim that they are hosting the event to boost the tourism fortunes of the state, the event drew more negative than positive reviews from people who witnessed the show.
Tickets for the event were categorised from Rs 1000 to Rs 3 lakhs. Rs 1000 tickets were only for students who were expected to witness the show from the last row without any chairs because of the low ticket prices. The seating capacity of the event was 7000 and according to the different categories of tickets, Titanium Plus was for Rs 3 lakhs each, Titanium for Rs 2 lakhs, Diamond – Rs 1 lakh, Platinum – Rs 25000, Gold – Rs 15000, Bronze Premium – Rs 2500 and for students tickets were sold at Rs 1000 each. Many from the audience talking to G Plus said that the chairs offered by the organisers were of poor quality.
A 12 year school student Akangksha talking to G Plus said, “I sat on a VVIP chair but when I reached home at around 10.30 pm, my body was paining. The chairs were very hard.” The child was taken to the show by an uncle of hers who is working with a Guwahati based news channel.
Similarly, there were various other issues which were raised. An event manager who visited the show revealed that masking of the venue was not correctly done. The screen used in the pandals were of medium quality, said the event manager. “The stage was of international standards but the pandal was very clumsy,” expressed the event manager.
People were also irked with the delay in the commencement of the show. The organisers had asked the audience to reach the venue by 3:45 PM. The gates were expected to close by 6:00 PM. However, due to delay in commencement of the show, people had to wait till 7:00-7:30 PM for the host to arrive and start the show. Many families were expectantly waiting at the venue since 3 pm. The show extended till 1 am and many people had to leave the show midway.
Also, at the main entrance, there were very few frisking gates. From Titanium Plus category ticket holders to the bronze level ticket holders, people had to queue up for around 100 metres to enter the venue.
The height of the stage was also not comfortable for all. The viewers sitting at the back were not able to see anything on stage and had to look at the TV screens installed near their bays. Many students revealed that they were not able to get a close look at any of the celebrities.
But people lauded the administration and the police for the law and order situation. The traffic police also were lauded by the Filmfare audience as there were no traffic management issues faced by anyone.
It needs to be mentioned that the Assam government had paid Rs 23 crores for the event as a direct sponsorship.
