New Delhi, May 10
There is fresh trouble brewing for the embattled Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi.

Renowned filmmaker Shyam Benegal has dashed off an angry letter to the group of ministers (GOM), headed by urban development minister Jaipal Reddy, overseeing the preparations for the Commonwealth Games to complain at the last-minute decision to advance the timings of the opening ceremony of the games to favour Australian broadcasting companies.

Benegal is a member of the core group set up by the Organising Committee to conceptualise, plan and execute the opening and closing ceremonies. Other members of the group include well-known film director Bharat Bala, lyricist Javed Akhtar and Prasoon Joshi.

The veteran film director is upset at the organising committee’s proposal to the government that the opening ceremony be held at 5.30 pm and not at 7 pm as decided earlier. This change is learnt to have been sought at the request of two Australian television channels, which have bought the telecast rights for the games for $300 million. The original timings apparently will not fetch prime time viewership in Australia.Upset that the Organising Committee is allowing itself to be pressurised, Benegal writes, “Which audience is more important to us, our own or the Australian.” The GOM is listed to discuss this issue at its meeting tomorrow. In fact, the GOM had approved the timing of the opening ceremony at 7 pm nearly three months ago.

The filmmaker has pointed out that it was very difficult for them to “make any mid-course corrections” in their plans. “Why were we not informed about this agreement when we were asked to conceptualise the programme,” he has further asked. When contacted Benegal refused to comment on the contents of his letter.