The day-long ‘Short Film Festival 2016’organised in connection with the 150 years of formation of Salem City held here on Sunday evoked overwhelming response.
The festival organised jointly by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), Salem 150 Committee, and Periyar University, attracted more than 300 entries from all over India and foreign countries.
Salem, then a village of a few hundred people in 1866, has grown into what is now known as Salem city with a population of 8.26 lakh. In1857, the British rulers renamed it as Sanitary Association of Salem and declared it the capital city of the district in 1860. During 1866, the Salem Municipal Council was formed.
The INTACH and other organisations decided to celebrate the 150 years of formation of the city in a fitting manner by organising various events. The celebrations kick-started with a short film festival. Documentary films on the development and achievements of Salem were received from three categories of participants – general category (open to all), special category (open to residents of Salem district alone) and students category (for school students).
While about 200 entries were received in general category, the residents of Salem submitted 60 short films and the rest were from student teams of different schools.
Of the 300 documentary films received for the competition, 38 were short-listed by a team of judges comprising Film director K. S. Ravikumar, actor Prabhu, director Balaji Mohan, actor Santhanam, and visual effects expert Prasanna Sidharthan,
Of them, a total of 22 short films were screened throughout the day at the auditorium of Sona College of Technology.
Rekha, actor, and C. Swaminathan, Vice Chancellor, Periyar University, inaugurated the festival. Ms. Rekha also declared open an exhibition of photos on the progress achieved by Salem particularly in the field of cinema, the achievements of Modern Theatres, which produced 136 films in different languages, including 102 Tamil films alone for 45 years (from 1937 – 82), stills from yesteryear films, photos of great personalities including four former Chief Ministers M. Karunanidhi, MGR, Janaki Ramachandran and N. T. Ramarao, who had close contacts with the Modern Theatres. S. P. Muthuraman, noted film director, was the chief guest at the valediction and he gave away prizes to the best short films.
Kalaivani, daughter in-law of the legendary film producer and founder of The Modern Theatres T. R. Sundaram; Jayakumar, a member of the Rathna Studio family; Karuppiah, film financier; Venkatasamy, script writer, and Vaithilingam, producer-cum-director, were felicitated at the valediction.
Maninathan, film historian from Salem, presented PowerPoint presentation on the films produced by The Modern Theatres and other Salem-based film production companies such as Salem Shankar Films, Sri Sowdeswari Films, Salem Sri Krishna Films, Salem Surya Films, Asoka Pictures, MAV Pictures, PVT Productions etc.
Lakshmi Sidharthan, Convener, INTACH; S. Sharavanan, co-convener, INTACH; Kumaresan of Salem 150 Coordination Committee; Prasanna Sidharthan, Coordinator, Salem Short Film Society, and others were present. The Periyar University has proposed to organise an international conference on ‘Heritage of Salem’ as part of the celebrations.
