Short films from 11 countries to be screened
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 25: For the first time Jammu is going to host two day long international film festival from September 26 to September 27 at Abhinav Theatre here. Many stars from the tinsel town, directors of other Film Festivals and participants from all over the country are attending the festival. This was revealed by Rakesh Roshan Bhat and Rohit Bhat, the festival directors of Jammu Film Festival at a press conference here, today.
Rakesh said “Jammu has tremendous potential in terms of natural beauty and scenic locations to be explored,. The hospitality of the people of Jammu region is unparalleled and would be a key catalyst in helping this industry to grow. Moreover, Jammu has immense talent to be tapped. The idea is to build a platform for the talent from Jammu to have access and exposure to international filmmaking ecosystem”, he added.
Festival Advisor and Ex Municipal Commissioner of Jammu Kiran Wattal expressed satisfaction over the way the event has shaped up. He assured that the bar will only go higher for the festival every year and it will be counted as one of the best International Film Festivals in the world.
Wattal said, the film festival has been organised with an objective to open up new vistas of socio-cultural consciousness in society ever since J&K acquired the status of UT.
The core team members of the Festival were also present in the media briefing.
Famous actors from the State Mushtaq Kak and Lalit Parimoo who are also the Jury members expressed satisfaction over the response to the very first edition of the festival. “We were pleasantly surprised to receive over 150 projects (shorts and documentaries) across 15 countries in the very first edition. Our competent and eminent jury panel has very carefully picked up the best of the projects to be screened” said Mushtaq Kak.
Kapil Mattoo a Bollywood producer and founder of Filmbug is another member on the jury panel. He also expressed happiness over the quality of projects that they received in first year. “37 projects from 11 countries have been shortlisted. 10 projects from native film makers from J&K also have been selected to be screened in a special section”, said Neeraj Badyal another Jury member from Jammu. Amit Singh from Mumbai is the fifth member of the five member Jury panel
Raman Suri, the Executive body Member of State BJP and a renowned businessman of Jammu extended full support to this Festival.
The festival will be attended by many celebrities from Bollywood. Kashmira Shah who has featured in blockbuster movies like Hera Pheri, Yes Boss and Pyar to Hona hi Tha, Ayub Khan, nephew of legendary Dilip Kumar and heartthrob of nineties , famous model actor Ayaz Khan and Producer Pralhad Taware will be attending the event. Festival Directors of Pune International Film Festival Amol Bhagat and Kashmir World Film Festival Mushtaq Ali will also attend the festival. Participants and delegates whose movies have been shortlisted will also be attending from many other states in India.
Among the key highlights of the festival will be an acting workshop on Abhinay Yog which will be conducted by Lalit Parimoo. Kapil Mattoo who is also the Director and organizer of India alive film festival will showcase two award winning short films from less fortunate children in a special section.
Rahul Pandit, the CEO of leading IT company of Jammu, who is the man behind managing all the technology aspects of Film Festival said they could pull off everything inspite of the internet restrictions because of the collective effort of team and volunteers.
“It is going to be a long haul and we hope this first step will pave way for the vision we have for Jammu to be synonymous with a hub of Cinema and Arts”, said Ajatshatru Kotwal who is an educationist and another core team member.
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