British film industry facing crisis : Michael Jaffer

Panaji, Dec 1 (UNI) Noted British director Michael Jaffer today said film industry was going through a crisis in his country due to a number of reasons.

''We are not making many movies. One of the most important cause was the spiralling cost of everthing related to filmmaking, ''he said addressing a press conference here.

Michael's film 'Full Circle' has been screened in the ongoing International Film Festival of India(IFFI) here.

He said the crisis in cinema of United Kinddom can be gauged from the fact that his country had only two entries in IFFI while other European countries like France and Italy had quite a number of entries.

''We don't get any support from the government. We have to go to other Europen countries for shooting and for music of our films as in UK the whole business of cinema making is very expensive,'' he said.

Talking about the influence of Hollywood on British films, he said historically British cinema had won its identity, and personally he thought the cinema of his country should resist the bad influences of Hollywood.

Replying to a question, he said Indian movies were very popular in UK because there was such a huge Indian community.

Michael had made his first film Part Time Lovers' in 1993, primarily as an exercise in filmmaking, but it was a huge success.

He went to Paris, where he had learnt his craft, to make his second film L'Autre Femme(The Other Woman). Later, he made Une Journee Tranquille (A Quiet day).

UNI