HYDERABAD: The 6th edition of Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival is all set to celebrate 100 glorious years of Bengali Cinema, right from the famed archives of Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Rwitik Ghatak to contemporaries such as Rituporno Ghosh and Kaushik Ganguly. The festival will kick off on July 18 at Annapurna Studios, and films will be screened at Prasad Lab Reviews Theatre. The festival will be inaugurated by superstar Nagarjuna Akkineni and ace filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta. Bengali actress Rituparna Sengupta and Swastika Mukherjee will also be present through the course of the festival.
The festival, this year, boasts of over 15 unreleased films across different languages. Partha Mallik, Director of HBFF, says, “The response have been overwhelming. We have received films from countries like Iran and Iraq, and a Kurdish film as well. Keeping in mind the political situation of these countries, we understand how difficult filmmaking is for them. Therefore, entry fees for these filmmakers were waived off.”
Speaking about how digital media has blurred linguistic and logistic boundaries, actress Amala Akkineni said, “Watching and enjoying films from across countries and states has become much easier thanks to the concept of subtitles and online media platforms. There used to be a time when the elders in my family had to get Bengali scripts and literature translated and then they were read out to my father.”
The festival will also showcase six Bengali classics, wherein entry fee will not be charged, at Annapurna Studio.
However the film that is expected to steal the show will be one from the Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne series - Hirok Rajar Desh along with films of late Bengali superstars Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen.