MAMI's MFF: The 25 obstacles you have to cross before you DO NOT get a Press badge

To get a Press badge from the Mumbai Film Festival, an offer they make on their website and not something the press demands or coerces them to do, is a multiple stage process. And this happens only at MFF. Here are the 25 stages I had to go through, from 10 October 2024 to 6.32 October 2024, and I still do not have a Badge. This is how it begins                                  1. You either read about Registrations being open or get an email to that effect.

2. You click on three different pages for registrations as a Press Person. Why three pages? God knows.

3. You get a Google Form that indicates specifications of its demands. These include a picture of specified pixel and dpi size, links to previous articles in pdf format only, your facebook, X, YouTube and Instagram credentials, etc.

4. Once you submit this form, you get a message on the screen that you will be informed on your registered email address about  further developments. You do not get to retain a copy of what you have submitted, so there is no proof that you did, and no proof about the date and time when you did.

5. Then, you may or may not get an email saying that your Application has been successfully registered.

6. You may or may not get a message from BookMyShow that you can collect your Badge from the venues, 15 October onwards. (I had crossed all of the above mountains).

7. When you go to the venue, between 10 am and 5 pm, strictly, which is even less than local government and banking hours, you travel to the venue and queue up.

8. When your turn comes, the BookMyShow Supervisor on duty may or may not tell you that your Application has been approved and your Badge is ready. (In my case she said neither was my Badge ready nor did my name figure in any of the lists she had, either under my first name, my surname, my email id or the name of the publication I was going to write for).

I took a printout at 1.03 pm, on 17th October, and carried the document to PVR INOX. As it turned out, the document I was carrying was worth Zilch. Zero. Nothing. Trash. 

9. You apply a second time, going through the grind. This time there is a Booking Id on the return email, with a QR Code. Bingo. You think the worst is over.

10. You go to the venue again, on the 19th, queue up, and when your turn comes, your printout of the Booking Id and QR, plus your Aadhaar Card are passed from booking clerk to booking clerk. Finally, the same Supervisor lady, who had attended to me on the 15th, comes and tells you that your Application has not been approved.

11. She also adds that in such cases, MAMI sends out emails saying that the Accreditation has been denied, but she has no idea why it was not sent to me.

12. I tell her that the Booking Id and QR Code have been generated by BookMyShow, so it is now responsible to give me my Badge. She shrugs her shoulders and says that after all these proceedings, there is still another email that confirms your Approval, or informs you about denial of approval, which is missing in my case.

13. You ask her whether any MAMI official is present, to whom this issue can be addressed. She says they are there at the entrance, near the stairs.

14. You go there and ask around. One young man, in his early 20s tries, to be very helpful, and says that there are several others who have come to him with the same problem, but he is a junior volunteer, and his boss, a lady, a MAMI senior official, who could address this issue has gone for lunch.

15. You wait for a few minutes and then ask him when will she be back, but he has no idea.

16. Trying to be nice, he says that he will allow you to go up, even without the badge, since you have the Booking Id and QR Code. You are impressed.

17. You go up to the auditorium level and check which is the earliest next film, and what time will it start. Nobody has a schedule or a catalogue. A few volunteers Google and tell you that the next film is at 3.30, and that there is no film in any auditorium starting before that.

18. It is 2.20 pm, but you decide to wait and watch, having come all the way.

19. The queue moves, your turn comes. "Sorry! No badge, no entry."

20. You find Aditi (the Creative Director of MFF) standing next to you and explain your problem. She asks what publication you write for. You give her the name. She Googles in a second and lands on the page where the site is under renovation and reconstruction, while the regular site, which is very much on, has a link that needs us to add one more word to the url to get to the current site. This site contains 1,600 articles written by you. You try to tell her to go to this site.

21. She passes you on to two Public Relations Agency guys, Prathamesh and Shams, who say they will sort it all out if I send them copies of all communications I have received from MAMI and BookMyShow so far, and Prathamesh takes a picture of your Booking Id and QR Code

22. After you send/forward Prathamesh some nine emails, he says it will take a few hours to get my Badge.

23. Prathamesh has given you his email id and number, while Shams gives only his number. From 3 pm to 6.30 pm, they refuse to answer any mail, and SMS, any phone call, any WhatsApp message.

24. At 6.30, Prathamesh answers my phone. I ask him why did he not call back in two minutes, something he had promised at 4.30. he says he is very busy and has no time for me, but will call definitely in the next 5 minutes. I ask him whether I can attend the remaining shows on the same day. he says no. Approval will take a day and getting a Badge will take another day. I could expect some action by Monday. I ma flabbergasted at his insolence.

25. Between 4 pm and 6.29 pm, neither Prathamesh nor Shams answer any of my dozenjs of calls or respond to any messages or emails.

His five minute call-back, promised at about 6.30 pm on 19th October, is 1,275 minutes overdue, at the time of posting this.