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Visit http://www.garcabranca.com for details/booking/confirmation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Goa grand plan to go 200 up on Cannes AMIT ROY Cannes, May 28: Although it will be many years before Goa can claim to be an "Indian Cannes", the former Portuguese resort will out-Cannes Cannes in at least one respect. Goa is to build the biggest cinema in India, with 2,500 seats, 200 more than the capacity at the Grand Theatre Lumiere in Cannes. In an interview held on the terrace of the Carlton in Cannes, Sanjit Rodrigues, the chief executive officer for the Entertainment Society of Goa, said work would be completed within a year once the formalities were completed and that the theatre would include the latest technological advances. In Cannes, the Grand Theatre Lumiere, which has its famous red carpet outside, is at the heart of the festival. It is used every evening for the black tie gala screenings, which are preceded by stars walking up the red carpeted steps, flanked by hundreds of photographers on either side. This is also where the press screenings take place every morning for films in competition, watched by journalists from around the world. Rodrigues confirmed that Goa, now the permanent site for the International Film Festival of India, would hold the third festival this year from November 23 to December 3. Officials from the Goa government, including its chief secretary, J.P. Singh, have held talks in Cannes as part of the continuing collaboration between the festival authorities of the two countries. "Last year for the festival we had France as the country of focus and we had a French day at the festival where a large contingent of French film-related personalities attended," he recalled.=20 "The delegation was led by their ambassador in India. A host of officials from Cannes were there - Jerome Paillard, the marketing director, for example. We had also had the managing director of Cannes, Veronique Cayla. We had French movies and one closed the festival. We took the opportunity to allow them to see the festival. We had major meetings with them in Goa and now this year in Cannes we have come and met again." He went on: "The festival in Goa has grown in the two years it has been there. In the first year, we had a registration of 150 press people, whereas last year it was 400. People are looking towards Goa as the home of the festival, so definitely we need to up our infrastructure. "Cannes has lots of venues, not only in terms of the Palais and the main festival theatres, but it has small viewing rooms. We are thinking in terms of viewing rooms for the market at Kala Academy and we are in the process of establishing around six viewing rooms." He pointed out: "Our biggest theatre is 950 seats which is the Kala Academy in Panjim. The entire festival is in Panjim - it's walking distance, the theatres. We have pedestrianised the zone. "We have four other small theatres in the multiplex complex with a combined seating capacity of 1,275 seats. This is only for the festival. "Besides this, we have public theatres which we would hire. One would be in Margaon and the others in Panjim. This would be open for public screening." Rodrigues revealed: "We are thinking in terms of building a large festival theatre of 2,500 capacity. We are trying to build it in terms of a convention centre which can be used after the film festival." He said: "We have located the site at Dona Paula, close to Panjim. We have already tendered for consultancy. (As for cost), it will be on a build, operate and transfer basis. There will be private participation." Very proudly, he added: "The facilities here (in Cannes) are among the best but the multiplex in Goa we have built has the latest technology. There are four screens. We would like two or three more screening halls. We have the multiplex, which we built in 180 days, but the big theatre is on the way. We are definitely building the theatre with an imposing entry and exit so that it could match the best in the world. From the time the consultancy report is approved - within a year's time we should have it." He paid tribute to the Cannes authorities. "The French have advised u _____________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. Goanet mailing list (Goanet@goanet.org)