Courtesy Rajeev Masand at Open Magazine:
A reasonably popular film festival for Indian cinema in New York invited a well-known actor-filmmaker to attend the screening of an art house film he’d starred in that was yet to be theatrically released in India. The actor-director accepted the invitation, which included first-class airfare from Mumbai to New York, and also requested an invitation each for his father and stepmother, both leading film personalities, who he said were keen to accompany him to the festival.
The festival director, a close friend of the actor’s stepmother, happily offered first-class air-tickets and five-star hotel stay to all three. She was very happy to have them grace the festival, she insisted. The actor confirmed that he would participate in a Q&A session with the audience after the film screening, and his stepmother consented to participating in a masterclass session the following day.
On their scheduled date of arrival in New York, the festival director was a little taken aback to note that only the actor’s father and stepmother had arrived; the actor himself was missing. On enquiring from her friend, the stepmother, the festival director learnt that the actor had decided against attending the festival as he had to attend a friend’s wedding in Boston. Infuriated and embarrassed in equal measure, the distraught festival director didn’t know how to react to the fact that the actor had used the first-class air ticket she’d sent him to travel upto New York, but had decided to proceed to Boston for a personal engagement instead of showing up for the festival he’d committed himself to attending.
When she confronted the stepmother, the festival director was reportedly told rather dismissively, “Come on, do your kids listen to you all the time?”
