THE 3rd Bengalooru International Film Festival is all set to pay its tribute to Kannada Film artists by screening the best chosen Kannada films as a part of 75th year of Kannada Cinema, apart from screening chosen movies from around the world.
This grand festival will be inaugurated by chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, at Chowdaiah Memorial Hall on Thursday at 5 p.m. and Prakash Rai, renowned multi-lingual actor, will be present as the guest of honour. Well-known Kannada film stars like Ramesh Arvind, Puneet Rajkumar and Sharmila Mandre will also be there.
The festival will kick off with the film Seven Pounds, starring Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Michael Ealy, with Barry Pepper and Woody Harrelson.
From the director of The Pursuit of Happyness (Gabriele Muccino), this movie is the stirring and emotionally suspenseful tale of a man with a haunting secret who sets out to redeem himself by drastically changing the lives of seven total strangers.
Jayaramaraje Urs, secretary, information, Kannada and culture, AR Raju, vice-president, Film Federation of India and KCN Chandrashekhar, President, Karnataka Film Producers Association, will be the chief guest at the inauguration. The festival is being organised by Suchitra Cinema and Cultural Academy in collaboration with the government of Karnataka with the support of Kannada Film Industry.
The highlight of the festival will be a two-hour long DVD film on the evolution of Kannada film music on January 16. Other events, like Indian panorama section, documentary and short film section, the four-day animation workshop organised by ABAI (Association of Bangalore Animation Industry) and ANTS and finally the children’s section will also be there.
All these events will be held at Vision Cinemas.
Delegates can get passes from the two Festival offices - one at the Vision Cinemas Complex on Kengal Hanumanthaiah Road and the other at Suchitra Cinema at Cultural Academy.
The interested among the public can purchase the passes from both the venues for Rs 500 for the entire Festival.
Students of journalism and communication in all colleges and schools of film societies get the concessional rate of Rs 300. The workshop is free of cost.
“We have nurtured our audience over the past three years by bringing quality story telling and film-making to the forefront, it is going to be an exciting week and we are happy that we are getting a fair number of foreign and Indian delegates to the festival in spite of the global financial crisis,” said the organisers.
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