Bhubaneswar, Feb. 7: The state’s cine lovers can breathe a sigh of relief as the dilemma between various departments to hold a film festival organised by the Directorate of Film Festivals appears to be resolved.

Last July, the directorate proposed to the state government to conduct the festival to mark the centenary year of Indian cinema. But the state industries and culture departments were busy passing the buck to each other till last month. Now, the Odisha Film Development Corporation, under the industries department, will host the event in May or June this year.

Last December, Rajeev Kumar Jain, director of the directorate, told The Telegraph that it had sent letters to some states, including Odisha, in July 2012 to organise centenary film festivals in the respective capitals. Even by the end of last year, the directorate had received no communication from the state government on whether the latter declined the proposal for the festival.

Later, The Telegraph discovered that the proposal was lost in the quagmire of correspondence. Last October, the letter reached the culture department, which informed the industries department that the “rules of business” did not permit the former to comply with the directorate’s request. Then, in December, S.C. Naik, additional secretary to the government, industries department, asked the corporation to look into the matter. The directorate had planned to organise the festival in December 2012-January 2013.

However, authorities of various departments concerned with films and festivals in the state had told The Telegraph in December that they had no information about any such proposal. The proposal was brought back from the cold storage yesterday, when S.S. Pradhan, under secretary to the government, industries department, sent a letter requesting the managing director of the corporation to expedite submission of their views regarding the film festival.

P.K. Misra, deputy general manager of the corporation, said he was unaware of the letter but agreed that such a request had been made in January. “We did the preliminary work last month and contacted the directorate to fix a date. But, it turned out that the directorate was busy with the upcoming 60th National Film Awards. Now, the film fest ival will take place in May or June,” said Misra.

The festival’s arrival will bring smiles back on faces of proponents of cinema, which lost heart when culture and tourism department, I&PR department and the corporation had shrugged off the matter stating that no such information had reached their table.

“The industries department doesn’t give much priority to cinema. Ideally culture department should have taken the initiative. Nevertheless, it is better than never,” said veteran film-maker Nirad Mohapatra.