Earlier in the day, we made you aware of the new feather in Deepika Padukone's hat. The actress was the newly appointed chairperson of the MAMI Film Festival and she replaced Kiran Rao for the same. While this is great news and there's no reason to doubt the judgement, yet why would the Padmaavat actress show her keen interest on coming board for it? Well, turns out she did not. In fact, Deepika was very clear about her ordinary knowledge when it comes to film festivals yet the board members were insistent on her replacing Rao and we know why. Deepika Padukone Replaces Kiran Rao As Chairperson of Mumbai Academy of Moving Image.

According to a report in the Huffington Post, the reason why Deepika's name was picked by MAMI board members was to avoid any financial crunch in the future. The decision to elect the actress' name as the chairperson was taken on January 17 at a meeting that was held at the festival director, Anupama Chopra's residence. The decision was unanimous and was supported thoroughly by board members including Zoya Akhtar, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Rohan Sippy, Vikramaditya Motwane, Kabir Khan, Vishal Bharadwaj and MAMI creative director Smriti Kiran and Kaustubh Dhavse, who is joint secretary of the government of Maharashtra.

Deepika, however, was not convinced by their decision and was sceptical to take up the role of a chairperson. A person who was present in the meeting on a request of being anonymous revealed how she had second thoughts since her knowledge is clearly not enough. “She didn’t ever claim to have any knowledge about film festivals or any expertise on art house cinema. In fact, she asked several times, ‘are you guys sure about this? Should we really do this?’” said the same source. Deepika Padukone Apes Beau Ranveer Singh's Monochrome Look and All We Need to Say is 'Well Done'.

Deepika even made it clear how she won't give a long term commitment of five years and will wait for a year to see how things pan out. So when the actress had so many reservations, why would the board members insist on having her? “To keep the big sponsors happy,” the person said.

“Unfortunately, marketing the festival and ensuring the money keeps coming in has become one of the dominant features. And for better or the worse, Bollywood is the only way that the sponsors will stick around as the presence of a top star ensures tremendous media coverage,” the person added. After Kiran's resignation, the board was contemplating to come up with a suitable name who can replace her. While names like Priyanka Chopra and Karan Johar were suggested, the final vote went to Deepika Padukone. Anurag Kashyap Steps Back From His Duties as a Board Member From MAMI, Here’s Why.

However, a source clarified that a chairperson's post is anyways an honorary title and that the day-to-day work of the festival is done by the director (Anupama Chopra) and the creative producer (Smriti Kiran).

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 30, 2019 11:03 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).