The unsung hill State of Nagaland with its recently concluded Indian Panorama Film Festival is all set to become the precursor of things to come. Emboldened with the success of the first ever film festival in Nagaland, the Directorate of Film Festivals is ready to take the concept to other remote States, including those not traditionally known for either their film industry or hosting such fetes. States like Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, not quite known for their cinema, are likely to host similar events later this year.
Speaking to The Hindu at the conclusion of the Nagaland fest, S.M. Khan, director, DFF, said, “We want to take the Indian Panorama Film Festival and also National Award-winning films to all parts of the country. We want people who do not have access to quality cinema to have a firsthand experience of acclaimed films in different Indian languages. For the first time we are also going to screen National Award-winning films in various State capitals. Earlier such films could be seen only in Delhi.”
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After Kohima, the next festival is coming up in Shimla from May 28. Like the North East venture, it too shall have around 15 offerings with a mix of feature and non-features films. “In Shimla, we also plan to screen a Punjabi film, if possible. In fact, wherever we host the festival, we will make sure that local sentiment is respected and at least some of the films are in either the local language or they have content that local people can identify with,” Khan said.
Unlike Kohima where stars were conspicuous by their absence, Shimla will keep its date with them during the three-day fest. Rahul Bose, Divya Dutta, Abhishek Pathak and Sivan are likely to attend. Among the films to be screened are “Haat: The Weekly Bazaar”, “Harishchandrachi Factory”, “Boond”, “Keshu” and “Antaheen” — the last one having already been shown in Kohima.
After Shimla, the film caravan shall roll into Bhopal in July this year. Meanwhile, plans are afoot to take the festival down South, beginning with a three-day venture in Kerala's capital, Thiruvananthapuram. The summer of many challenges and cine feast continues with another possible edition in either Hyderabad or Chennai.
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“This is probably for the first time in its history that DFF is hosting film festivals across the country. We don't want that the cinema viewing experience should be available to only a handful in metropolises. We want to make it a universal phenomenon. That is why even beyond the Panorama festivals, we are all geared up to have retrospectives of Kamal Haasan and Ang Lee in July this year.” Incidentally, Kamal Haasan was scheduled to have a retrospective in Goa last year. It could not be held during IFFI as it was felt he deserved more than concurrent shows with other luminaries.
All the Panorama festivals will conclude well before the International Film Festival of India kisses the coastal State of Goa in November this year.
The show goes on.