The official Facebook page of the 17th Calcutta Film Festival

An event management company and an advertising agency will bring a professional touch to the Calcutta Film Festival this year.

Showhouse, a city-based company that manages fashion, corporate, cultural and sports programmes, will be in charge of the inauguration and final nights, while Lowe Lintas will create a brand identity and communication tools for the festival as well as the city.

The annual event, scheduled from November 10 to 17, will have two new logos designed “to create an identity for the festival and bring Calcutta to the forefront of cinema as a destination equivalent to Cannes”.

One of the logos will be dedicated to the 17th edition of the festival. The other, called Kolkata Kolkata, will also deal with the origin of the city.

Teasers have been put up on billboards. The revamped official website of the festival will be launched on Saturday. Its first official Facebook page has already garnered over 600 likes.

Showhouse’s responsibility starts with the management of the launch of the festival website by the chief minister at Technicians’ Studio 1 on Saturday, followed by a walk from the studio to the Uttam Kumar statue near Tollygunge Metro station.

“We’ll be taking care of the stage, greenrooms, seating and backdrop during the festival launch at Netaji Indoor Stadium. On the stadium floor, there will be a main dais for VVIPs, flanked by two smaller stages for Abraham Mazumdar’s orchestra and Mamata Shankar’s dance troupe and a few rows of seats for select guests,” said Keith Halge, the branch head of Showhouse, Calcutta.

Only 40 per cent of the stadium’s gallery will be used for seating, he said, since a giant screen around 40ft high and 60ft wide will be mounted on one side so that the inaugural film can be projected on it. Showhouse will later take charge of the closing ceremony at Nandan I and a high tea in the foyer.

After regular meetings with government officials, the event managers feel, that the festival is not being treated as a “government programme”. “In fact, they’re treating the festival as a special and separate entity. Even the colour of carpets they’ve opted for at the inaugural venue is grey instead of green, which is usually the colour of choice at any event attended by the chief minister,” said a manager.

“We wanted to involve professionals to brighten up the show. They felt the colour grey would go best with the theme and backdrop and therefore we agreed. We have engaged the best in the trade to make the festival a success,” said festival convener Shibaji Panja.