Siliguri, Oct. 27: The first telefilm festival in the town opened to lukewarm response at Dinabandhu Mancha today.

Disappointed with the choice of films and the turnout, director Koushik Ganguly, who inaugurated the three-day festival, said from next time, he would directly involve himself with the programme to make the event “better”.

“Three of the six films screened here cannot be called telefilms,” Ganguly said, asking viewers not to judge telefilms and films by the same parameters. He was referring to the remakes of oldies like Pothe Holo Deri, Ekhane Pinjor and Mouchak.

“Telefilms were started by directors to carry forward the work of parallel cinema. Remakes of commercial hits do not fall in that category,” said the director of Sunya E Bukey.

Though he lauded the initiative of Siliguri Cine Society, the organiser of the festival, Ganguly was disappointed with the turnout at the theatre. “Perhaps the advertising was not adequate,” he said.

Ganguly also inaugurated the third three-day Film Appreciation Course also, organised by the cine society. At the course, Biren Das Sharma, the director of Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, taught the participants about technical aspects of film-making.

“Both programmes were taken up in a hurry. So we could not have them the way we wanted,” said Shyama Prasad Banerjee, the president of the cine society. “Our aim is to promote a sound understanding and appreciation of film as a form of art.”