By Our Staff Reporter
DEHRADUN, 22 Sep: The 8th edition of the Dehradun International Film Festival (DIFF) began, here, today. The festival will run from 22 to 24 September. The three-day film festival will showcase thirteen feature films from various corners from India in Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, Garhwali and Kodava languages, and also 53 short films.
Veteran Asian Film Scholar Dr Aruna Vasudev, noted actress Sushma Seth and veteran actor, the late Om Puri mentored the Dehradun International Film Festival in the past.
The Artistic Director of DIFF, Santanu Ganguly, said, “On the 8th Dehradun International Film Festival, we have decided to confer the Lifetime Achievement Award to the Mother of Asian Cinema, Dr Aruna Vasudev, for her immense contribution to promoting Asian Cinema throughout the world.” He added, “Who doesn’t know the name of Aruna Vasudev from the fraternity of academicians and serious filmmakers? It is almost like Ganga Pujan with the Ganga Jal. Honouring a personality of her stature is actually to honour ourselves! And, also, it is our moral duty to reintroduce the veteran personalities like her to the younger generations from time to time.
The award ceremony will take place at the WIC here at 7.30 p.m. on 24 September.
This year, Deepti Naval, Rajit Kapur and Pushan Kripalani will attending the DIFF with their film Goldfish, and Vinay Pathak with his cult film Bheja Fry. Besides, actors Himani Shivpuri, Chitrashi Rawat, (of Chak De India fame), Varun Badola, all of whom belonging to Uttarakhand, along with Manish Wadhwan, Mohan Kapur, Pradeep Rawat will also be attending the film festival.
“DIFF is a non-competitive film festival, but we try to honour all the participating filmmakers as equals with trophies and certificates from the hands of the eminent film personalities to encourage the young creative minds of our country,” said Santanu Ganguly.
This year, the festival will begin with the film Drishyam 2 directed by Abhishek Pathak, which has been specially dubbed for the visually impaired people of society, so that they also can come and enjoy cinema. This effort is to spread awareness of inclusiveness among everyone in society.
Rajesh Sharma, the Founder Director of the festival, says, “Our motto is to showcase nationally and internationally acclaimed and award-winning films to the audience of Uttarakhand. This is to create awareness of excellent cinema, which is usually not available in the small towns of India. Along with cinema, discussions, and interaction of the film fraternity with the local audience are also very important aspects of this cinematic event.”
