Shillong, Nailur 01: The Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information and Broadcast, Government of India in collaboration with the Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR), Government of Meghalaya’s, will host their annual event, the Indian Panorama Film Festival in Shillong from the 4th to the 6th of August 2016 at the U Soso Tham Auditorium.
The Indian Panorama Film Festival is a multi-city annual event that highlights the best of regional and national cinema based on thematic, aesthetic and social criteria. It is a celebration of indigenous cinema and provides a platform for talent from across the country. The festival will be inaugurated by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Dr. Mukul Sangma at 4pm on the 4th of August, and this will be followed by a cultural program.
Officials of the Directorate of Film Festivals and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting are expected to be there. The festival will open with the screening of Nitin Kakkar’s unreleased feature film, Ramsingh Charlie. The film is about the titular character who has spent his life as an artist in a traveling circus, and how it changes when he is thrown into a real life situation where he has to juggle between his role as a father and as a performer. The film will be screened at 5:30pm.
Over the course of three days, a total of 13 films (9 feature and 4 non feature films) will be screened at the event. These include regional movies like The Head Hunter, a production from Arunachal Pradesh, the Bodo language film on militancy, Dau Huduni Methai and the Manipuri non feature film on the beautiful Loktak lake – Phum Zhang. The festival will also screen other Indian language films like the Bengali drama, Kadambari, the Malayalam non feature film, Ore Udal, the Marathi film Katyar Kalyat Ghusali, the coming of age Malayalam film Luka Chuppi and the Bengali production Pakaram, a surreal tale about a young boy and his imagination.
The Hindi films that will be shown at the event include the festival opener Ramsingh Charlie, the Kabir Khan film on cross border harmony, Bajrangi Bhaijan, the non-feature film by Neeraj Ghaywan, Masaan and Chinese Whispers, an English and Hindi language non feature film about a Manipuri girl’s experience outside her home state. The Indo Korean short non feature film, Daddy Grandpa and My Lady will also be screened at the festival. In a push to promote the local film industry of Meghalaya, the festival will organise a special screening of the National Award winning movie from Meghalaya, Onataah on the 4th of August at 1pm.
This sensitive and poignant portrayal of rape victim in the course of her revival is one of the most acclaimed films from the state. As part of this endeavour to promote the state’s cinema, there will also be a screening of its first animated movie, U Syiem on the 6th of August at 5pm. The 3-day festival will be attended by industry leaders in the field of cinema, actress Divya Dutta, cinematographer Fowzia Fathim, director Nitin Kakkar and actor Kumud Mishra. Fowzia Fathima is a successful cinematographer whose work on film and TV has earned her several accolades and awards.
An alumnus of the prestigious Film and TV Institute of India, Pune, Fowzia was a professor of cinematography at the Satyajit Ray Film and TV Institute in Kolkata and continues to impart her vast knowledge and expertise through various workshops and seminars all over the country. She will also be conducting a cinematography workshop at the festival. Nitin Kakkar is a film and TV director whose national award winning movie and favourite of the international festival circuit, Filmistan enthralled audiences with its humour and poignant social message. His movie, 2 Ramsingh Charlie will be screened at this year’s Shillong edition of the Indian Panorama Film Festival.
He will be conducting an interactive session on film making during the festival. Divya Dutta is an award winning actress whose career has spanned over two decades. She has received many accolades and recognitions for her memorable performances in movies like Veer Zara, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and the Punjabi film Shaheed-e-Mohabbat Boota Singh. Divya Dutta plays a lead role in one of the festival highlights, Ramsingh Charlie. Kumud Mishra is a popular movie and theater actor who gained mainstream prominence in Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar with his portrayal of the character, Khatana. With movies like Filmistaan, Revolver Rani, Badlapur and Airlift under his belt, Kumud’s next role is the lead in Nitin Kakkar’s Ramsingh Charlie.
The Indian Panorama Film Festival (IPFF) will also host several workshops conducted by industry leaders and an interactive panel discussion on future film policy for the state. Workshops by Fowzia Fathima, Nitin Kakkar and Mehernosh Shapoorjee Along with the movie screenings, there will be workshops held on the 5th and 6th of August, conducted by Nitin Kakkar and Fowzia Fathima who will cover the topics of filmmaking and cinematography respectively. In addition, marketing pioneer, Mehernosh Shapoorjee will conduct “Cinema 3.0”, a workshop on efficient film marketing using new media.
Fowzia’s workshop on the basics of cinematography and filming, The Viewfinder, provides an opportunity to participants to learn the practical art of cinema through an intuitive knowledge sharing process, enabling them to absorb information through experimentation and discovery. In his workshop, Nitin Kakkar will discuss the basics of filming and screenplay and share his ideas and technical knowledge of the art of filmmaking. Mehernosh’s Cinema 3.0 is a workshop that focuses on promoting cinema and reaching out to an audience by using social media and the internet as marketing platforms. In this 4-part workshop, participants learn about new promotion strategies, best practices, audience engagement and delivering social messages through movies amongst many other film marketing principles that Mehernosh will discuss.
Charting the Course – A Panel Discussion On August 6th, the third and final day of the festival, the DIPR will host a panel discussion that will be steered by an eminent panel of stakeholders, film makers and decision makers, seeking to evolve a film policy for the state.
