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My 1st year at IFFLA was 2005 and TEJ GILL was spinning his eclectic mixes at the opening & closing nights. The opening night also featured Shankaar & Gingger. This year Gingger is back on Wednesday when she is going to jam with Gurinder Chana. Yes its the same dude who inspired Richie to shoot his music video. That year I also became friends with a really nice filmmaker from UK - Rene Mohandas. He made a very moving film ELEPHANT BOY. He made me his liason for sending Elephant Boy for all the Film Festivals in US. It went on to win the Best Short Film at the LA Short Film Festival. 2005 was also the year I met the man whos work inspired me to be a filmmaker. Anurag Kashyap. And he has become the darling of IFFLA since then. He is the Amitabh Bachchan of IFFLA.

2006 closed with an amazing Dj set by DJ CHEBE. I would rate that party to be the best in my experience. It was probably one of the best nights of Nishikant Kamat. He had just won the best film for DOMBIVILI FAST. Same goes for Umesh Kulkarni who made the amazing short GIRNI. I think I saw both of them dance that night. Its a rare sight, anyone who knows them would tell you. I watched Parzania which I didn’t like much. Gujrati rioters started talking to each other in english at one point. I started missing Rahul Bose at that point. My fav shorts from that year apart from the ones I mentioned earlier would be CATARACT by Sainath Chaudhary. I wonder where that talented guy has dissapeared. BOMBAY CALLING was another great documentary that year about a bunch of call center employees in Bombay. 2006 was also the year I finally got to watch PAANCH. After having written & inspired by the story of Anurag’s Fight with Censor Board for years, it was a bit dissapointing in the end. It would have been impossible to have been any other way after so much hype. 2006 was also the year OZ met Anurag at IFFLA, which was one of the critical moments in the life of PFC. 2006 ended with the really funny MIXED DOUBLES.

I missed most of 2007 due to personal issues. But 2007 was also when lot of the PFC authors of US come to LA to hang out with each other. So they should write some stuff about it. Rumours has it that Striker rocked the party with his dance move so much that Uma D Cunha upon reaching Bombay immediately asked for his Headshots to be distributed to Bollywood Directors. It was also a year when Anurag & Nishikant surprised everyone with their presence. Which gave the PFC junta to have some great interaction with both the filmmakers over beer. 2007 would also be remembered as the year our talented PFC author/Filmmaker Srinivas would meet Quentin Tarantino at the Arclight Lounge, when Tarantino famously joked about how he loved KAANTE. That incident was spinned into a interview of Tarantino by Srinivas by the by now very infamous Subhash K Jha. Srinivas is making his come back this year with another short film VAAPSI. Maybe his feature will be the opening film of 2010 if he follows Richie’s curve. The question is will it be the feature version of TEA BREAK? Like Amal? Both filmmakers won the Grand Jury for their 1st short at Iffla. Now Richie is opening the festival with AMAL.

PFC Gang at IFFLA 2007 with Anurag & Nishikant: