When Raj was caught picking Srijit's brain!

That director Srijit Mukherji is a foodie is an open secret. On Thursday night, the director was in for a pleasant surprise when he was served a bowl at a party hosted by KIFF chairperson Raj Chakrabarty at Soujanya. Being a perfect host, Raj personally ensured that all his guests were well taken care of. For Srijit, he specially instructed the waiters to serve him a bowlful of brain curry.

Before Srijit could fathom what he was being served, the waiter politely said: “Sir, your brain curry!" Rolling his eyes, a zapped Srijit smiled and said: “My brain curry? Looks interesting!”
On another table was seated jury member Roya Sadat from Afghanistan. While indulging her sweet tooth, she said, “I have been to various festivals. But the sheer passion for cinema that I saw in Kolkata is unbeatable. I have bought various artefacts and shawls from Kolkata. Before coming to this party, I couldn’t resist wearing a shawl that I picked up from the city,” she said.

Guatemalan film director and screenwriter Jayro Bustamante, whose movie titled La Llorona was screened to a packed house, was touched by the warmth of cine-lovers in the city. “I have gained some five kilos, thanks to the sweets, fish and love of the people of this city,” he smiled and said.
Meanwhile, Bhutanese director Pawo Choyning Dorji confessed to have fallen in love with the mustard hilsa from Kolkata. “I had been to Kolkata many years back. But this is my first visit to the festival and I just love the hilsa dipped in tangy mustard paste,” he said. Though extremely thrilled with his Kolkata visit, there was a tinge of sadness in his voice when he spoke about the technical glitches that came

in the way of screening of his Lunana: A Yak in The Classroom at Nandan I on Wednesday.
When we later asked Raj about the complaints regarding the technical glitches, he said, “As a director, I completely understand how it feels if there is a problem during a screening. Few know that many films were sent in a format that didn’t work here. Besides, for the fear of piracy, most makers don’t want to send in their films well in advance. If we get time to check, we can always sort out the issues beforehand. But if we don’t do that, it gets very difficult to sort out matters at the last minute. Yet, we have tried our best,” Raj said.