Goa film festival to have e-ticketing for delegates

PANAJI - More than 7,000 delegates who have registered for the 41st International Film Festival of India (IFFI) at Goa can now avail of e-ticketing facilities at the Nov 22-Dec 2 event, organisers said Thursday.

State Information Secretary Narendra Kumar said this was the first time in the world that tickets at a film festival could be booked using an e-ticketing mechanism.

This e-ticketing software will not only eliminate queues, but help delegates book tickets for their film screenings at the touch of a button from the comforts of their home. Nowhere in the world do film festivals have such e-ticketing facilities, Kumar said.

Manoj Srivastava, CEO of the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) which is the local host agency for the IFFI, said that the e-ticketing mode included a lot of security features.

Bar coding of the tickets synced with the delegate’s identity card will ensure that tickets will be carried by the person they are issued to. Any person who books tickets and does not attend three shows in a row will be barred from booking any more tickets for two days, Srivastava said.

The official also said that the software would help in collating data, like for example which movie was the most popular with delegates.

We will have record about which movie was attended the most by delegates and other such information on the basis of this new software, Srivastava said.

The e-ticketing software has been developed with the help of the Goa unit of the National Informatics centre.

Delegates can also use e-kiosk at the IFFI venue where e-tickets can be printed on the spot, he said.