By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Bollywood stars, Moon Moon Sen, her daughter Ria Sen and Rahul Bose will take part in the three-day Indian Cinema Film Festival which will be hosted by Shillong. This is the first film festival to be organised in the North-East in an effort to promote the local film industry from January 21-23.
The three-day film festival organised by the State Information and Public Relations department in collaboration with the Directorate of Film Festivals will also mark the centenary year of evolution of the Indian Cinema. The festival will be inaugurated on January 21, which also happens to be Meghalaya Day.
Besides the movie stars, directors like Anjan Dutt and Vivek Damle and other eminent personalities, both local and national will also witness the festival.
Addressing the media, Director of the Directorate of Information and Public Relations, HM Shangpliang stressed on the need to promote the local film industry even while reiterating on the need to recognize the music and film sector as an industry and start promoting the same.
“It is the need of the hour to promote the local film industry”, Shangpliang said adding that the government needs to recognize the industry so that the entire film scenario in the state improves.
Going down memory lane, the dawn of the Indian Cinema began with Raja Harishchandra, a 1913 silent film directed and produced by Indian Film icon Dadasaheb Phalke, and is the first full-length Indian and Marathi feature film. The film was based on the legend of King Harishchandra, recounted in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
Few of the films which have been short-listed for the festival includes Noukadubi-a Bengali film directed by Rituporno Ghosh, Manus-a Marathi film, Keshu-a Malayalam film directed by Sivan and Bow Barracks Forever- a English film directed by Anjan Dutt.
The first ever Khasi film- ‘Ka Ri ki 30 Syiem’ will also be screened during the Film Festival and its maker Dr Hamlet Bareh will be posthumously felicitated for his contribution to the Cinema scene in Meghalaya.
Three local films which have also been short-listed for screening includes Manik Raitong-a Khasi classic directed by Ardhendu Bhattacharya, Hep directed by Pradeep Kurbah and Chake-a Jaintia film.