Row brewing over Sa-india TV awards
Ticket prices among complaints
than 30 Indian film stars have been lined up for the South Africa-India Television Awards, due to take place in Durban next week.
However, not all locals are thrilled about the awards, which are set to attract talkshow host and director Karan Johar and actors John Abraham, Suniel Shetty and Elli Avram, among others.
Some commentators this week said the high cost of tickets (from R500 to R3 500) excluded most people; the dominance of north-Indian stars meant it was not representative of the diverse ethnicity of South African Indian audiences; and the event could cost more than it made.
Krish Swamivel of the Krish Swamivel Dance Institute said the money used by the KwaZulu-Natal economic development and tourism department should have been channelled into local arts.
“With local artists, ticket prices are reasonable and the middle classes support us. But with these awards, most of them can’t go because the price of tickets is too high. We have our DVDs being made by locals, but nobody is spending money to encourage them. But here they are giving money to people from overseas.”
Awards publicist Frances Park-Ross said early-bird tickets were R350.
Swamivel recently joined an outcry over the failure of the KwaZulu-Natal’s arts and culture committee to allocate funding to Indian cultural organisations.
Social anthropologist and cultural researcher Raj Govender said the recruitment of mainly north-Indian stars failed to take into account that most South African Indians had roots in south India. He said the high ticket prices limited the number of people who would attend and the event would not have a significant economic impact.
Park-Ross said the complete financial figures would be available after the event.
Desmond Golding, head of the provincial economic development and tourism department — the event’s main sponsor — said the awards were part of a long-term strategy to promote Durban as a viable location for foreign filmmakers. He said positioning the city as a filming location would generate jobs.
The event’s creative director, Kedhar Gawde from Mumbai, said the awards did feature south-Indian stars. But he added that the India-based organisers had not been able to secure an ideal number of south-Indian stars because most of them had other commitments.
He said the selection of which stars to bring had not been driven by the situation in South Africa. “In India, we have crossed all language barriers.”