Prakash Jha must have discovered at his own expense that engaging with the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) can be as excruciatingly painful as living in Lalu's Bihar must have been.

The premiere Wednesday evening of his latest film, "Apaharan", billed as a mid-fest gala, was anything but a joyride as chaos reigned supreme.

The queues at the INOX multiplex began getting out of hand an hour-and-a-half before the show. The two auditoria - 1 and 2 - were packed to the rafters by 5.30 p.m. for a 6 p.m. screening. That would have gladdened Jha's heart.

But what followed did not. The stars, Ajay Devgan and Bipasha Basu, arrived 35 minutes late and the two screen shows could not begin until about 6.45 p.m.

After a brief presentation in Auditorium 1, the stars were whisked away to the other hall, where the screening had already begun.

The show was halted to allow the stars to have their say. But the audience was in no mood for the interruption, star or no star.

A section of the crowd shouted down Jha and his stars and they were forced to beat a hasty retreat. On their way out, the director noticed that there were some TV cameras inside the hall quietly recording portions of his film.

Understandably apprehensive of the film being pirated before its commercial release on Dec 2, the director blew his top. The cops were called in to clear the halls of prying cameras before order was restored.

The makers of the film must share part of the blame for the chaos.

The Directorate of Film Festivals had given them the option of using the 900-seater Dinanath Mangeshkar Kala Mandir at the Kala Academy for the world premiere of "Apaharan". But they insisted on having access to the snazzier INOX multiplex, where the halls are much smaller.

Initially, halls 2 and 3 were eared for the loop screening, but their collective capacity simply wasn't enough.

At the last minute, the screening scheduled in hall 3 was shifted to hall 1, the largest of the four auditoria that make up the multiplex.

A Russian director who had flown in with his film and his lead actress had to make way for the high-profile Indians.

The IFFI organizers could not prevent the premiere from being hijacked by complete pandemonium.