A six-day centenary film festival — ‘Celebrating a Century: An Audio Visual Voyage’ — has kicked off in New Delhi. It includes screenings of classics and contemporary films directed by all-time greats such as Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt, Shyam Benegal and Adoor Gopalakrishnan.
The festival will also pay tribute to popular Hindi actors — Balraj Sahni, Dev Anand, Shammi Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna, among others.
Exhibition organised
As part of the festival, an exhibition has been specially conceived and curated by the Films Division to familiarise visitors with vintage artefacts, cinema equipment, sound-recording and editing machines and lighting equipment.
An actual tent for viewers to experience the Tambu Cinema of the early 20th century way of viewing, has also been arranged at the main foyer of the Siri Fort auditorium. “A special Satyajit Ray retrospective and display of artwork of Ray pays homage to one of the best known ambassadors of Indian cinema.
Films Division, whose documentaries have been captured on celluloid post-Independent India in all its myriad perspectives, will showcase some gems out of its rich archive, such as news reels documentaries, shorts, featurettes and animation films on a myriad of subjects, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry said.
‘Cut-Uncut,’ a three-day workshop conceived and being executed by members of the Censor Board will showcase the growth and evolution of censorship in Indian cinema through workshops and insightful panel discussions,” the Ministry said. Inaugurating the festival on Thursday, Manish Tewari, Minister of Information and Broadcasting, said the Government would make all possible efforts to make India a major international filming destination.
He said the single-window mechanism constituted through the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Promotion and Facilitation of Film Production in India, will ensure the removal of all possible hurdles and lay down timelines for different agencies involved for granting clearances
A play on the life and times of Dadasaheb Phalke by Aamir Raza Hussain on April 30 will mark the end of the festival.