“It’s
an exciting time for world cinema and especially Indian cinema. It’s wonderful that our country has
opened its doors, with the International Film Festival of India providing a
platform to showcase some of the finest films from across the globe,” said
superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who will be opening the festival this year. The
superstar will be making the official welcome address to all the delegates from
across the globe as IFFI 2017 flags off in the beach state of Goa. This year,
with the presence of Shah Rukh Khan along with a whole lot of esteemed
dignitaries, IFFI 2017 is looking forward to a more magnificent start than
ever.
The opening ceremony on November 20 will also include a cultural
programme based on the Indian film industry. It will be followed by screening
of ‘Beyond the Clouds’, a film directed by the legendary Iranian filmmaker
Majid Majidi, at Kala Academy. Majid Majidi is a prominent Iranian film director
who has an illustrious career with a long list of awards and nominations, like
the 1998 Oscar nomination for the best film.
The film ‘Thinking of Him’, which revolves around the
relationship of legendary poet and intellectual Rabindranath Tagore, played by
Victor Banerjee, will be the closing movie of IFFI 2017.
After having made waves at the film festival circuit, Miransha
Naik’s debut feature film ‘Juze’ has made it to the final 26 of Indian
Panorama, chosen from 153 eligible entries for the 48th edition of the
International Film Festival of India (IFFI).
The film premiered at the Hong Kong Film Festival, following
which it was screened at Karlovy Vary film festival in Prague, MAMI film
festival in Mumbai, Minsk Film Festival in Belarus and the International Film
Festival in Ireland.
Miransha says the awards and accolades have encouraged him. His
next project is also selected for NFDC film bazaar this year. He also revealed
his plans about releasing ‘Juze’ in Goa.
For the Indian Panaroma section, ‘Kaasav’, the Marathi language
film to have won accolades at the 64th National Film Awards, has received a
direct entry. Seven other Marathi films will be screened under the section this
year, the highest for any language. Four in Hindi, two each in Bengali and
Assamese, and one each in Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Oriya, will be screened
under Indian Panorama.
The
non-feature film section will also open with a Hindi language film, ‘Pushkar
Puran’, by director Kamal Swaroop, while ‘Fireflies in the Abyss’, directed by
Chandrasekhar Reddy has been included in Indian Panorama 2017 by virtue of
direct entry for having won the 64th National Film Awards.
IFFI NEXT GEN – BIOSCOPE VILLAGE.
Actress Shraddha Kapoor, who is being felicitated as the Youth
Icon of Next Gen Cinema 2017 at IFFI, will also inaugurate the Bioscope Village
being set up as part of the IFFI Next
Gen sidebar program aimed at involving greater participation from the local
Goan audience.
This was announced by ESG Vice Chairman Rajendra Talak. The
Bioscope Village will host three air-conditioned inflatable cinemas, fitted
with state of the art cinema projection capabilities and will screen new and
classic films aimed at both young and older audiences. Shraddha’s ‘Aashiqui 2’
will be screened across three screens. Some of the titles being planned at the
festival include Samit Kakad’s ‘Aayna Ka Bayna’ and ‘Half Ticket’, Sachin
Kundalkar’s ‘Wazandaar’, Indian Panaroma titles ‘Kshitij – A Horizon’,
‘Natsamrat’, ‘Katyar Kaljat Ghusali’, ‘Ventilator’, ‘Moramba’, ‘Maza Bhirbhira’
and Hindi films: ‘M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story’, ‘The Lunchbox’, ‘Amar Akbar
Anthony’, ‘Toilet Ek Prem Khata’ and others and children’s films like ‘Ubuntu’,
‘Legend of Buddha’, Bal Ganesh Series among others.
“In addition to the screenings we are also happy to announce
that this year we have planned a ‘Katta’ talk session with some noted
celebrities like Nana Patekar, Sachin Khedekar , Sonali Kulkarni, Dilip
Phrabawalkar, Sushant Singh Rajput and Sai Tamhankar,” said Talak.
The
IFFI Next Gen – Bioscope Village is open to all, with only the gate admission
charges payable. Once in, the guests are free to explore the various aspects
and screenings that are going on throughout the day.
