The online booking system for the 26th Kolkata International Film Festival has been scrapped from January 11. In a late evening notification on Friday, the festival committee announced that people with delegate, press and guest cards will be allowed into the venues on a first-come-first-served basis.

“We cannot let in everyone who queues up once the permissible number of seats fills up. We request people to help us maintain Covid protocol,” festival committee chairman Raj Chakrabarty told The Telegraph.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s announcement of issuing a notification to resume 100 per cent occupancy in cinemas will not have any bearing on the festival. Seating at the festival venues will continue to be at 50 per cent occupancy, he clarified.

The film festival was opened virtually at Nabanna Sabhaghar with about 65 people present. Other than Mamata, the attendees were key film fraternity and festival committee members like Goutam Ghose, Rituparna Sengupta, MPs Nusrat Jahan and Dev, and Ranjit Mullick. Anubhav Sinha, director of films like Article 15 and Ra.One, who would deliver the Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture on Saturday, flew in from Mumbai on his way to shoot in the Northeast.

Shah Rukh Khan put in a virtual appearance at the inauguration from the sets of Pathan, the Yash Raj Films project he is shooting for in Mumbai.

He regretted not being present in person at the event for the first time since 2011. “Main ne ekbar kaha, shayed main naa aa sakoon. Travel karna padega. Bahut log hote hai. Pandemic chal raha hai… (I mentioned once that perhaps I could not make it. It would entail travelling. There would be a lot of people. The pandemic is on.) For the first time, she listened to me,” he smiled. Mamata invited “my favourite brother” to come for rakshabandhan, which he accepted.

Earlier, it had been announced that booking of seats, though free, will have to be done on the portal bookmyshow.com. On the first day after the system went live, 1,085 tickets were booked this way for the inaugural film Apur Sansar at Rabindra Sadan that was screened on Friday and for shows at various venues on January 9. Online booking was being allowed from two days ahead of a show.

These bookings, it has been decided, would be honoured in accordance with the seat number that each person chose. The other seats for shows till January 10 that had not been booked online will be filled up on a first-come-first-served basis.

The change had to be effected after the chief minister said at the inauguration that not everyone had access to a smart phone and could book online. Though Parambrata Chatterjee, the joint anchor of the inauguration programme and chairman of the short and documentary film selection committee of the festival, pointed out that helpdesks would be there at all the venues to assist those without smartphones, she was not convinced.

But there is little chance of her second suggestion of exhibiting films on LED screens outside venues being implemented for all films. “It cannot be done for foreign films,” said Chakrabarty. The permission for screening, officials explained, came for a single screening at a specific venue.

Mamata wants films to be exhibited at Ektara Mancha in the Nandan complex as an open-air setting could accommodate more people with less risk of infection. “She wants as many people as possible to enjoy the festival. We are in talks to see whether outside screening will be logistically possible for the local films,” the festival chairman added. Screening a film outdoor will pose technical challenges vis a vis light and sound.

Ektara Mancha is where conversations on film-related topics will take place every afternoon. Saturday’s topic is a tribute to Soumitra Chatterjee.