NEW DELHI: Renowned filmmaker, composer and singer S P Balasubrahmanyam received the Centenary award at the inauguration of the International Film Festival of India at Panaji in Goa yesterday evening.
Bakasubrahmanyam holds the record in the Guinness Book for singing and recording more than 40,000 songs and has won the National Award six times. He was honoured with the Padma Shri (2001) and Padma Bhushan (2011).
In his acceptance speech after getting the award from Goa governor Mridula Sinha, Goa chief minister Lakshmikant Parsekar and information and broadcasting minister M Venkaiah Naidu, he said he owed the award to his mother and to thousands of soldiers protecting the Indian borders.
Meanwhile, the inauguration the 47th IFFI at the newly built Shyama Prasad Mukherjee stadium was a glitzy affair with a lengthy dance presentation alternated with audio-visuals as a tribute to the Indian woman. The hour-long presentation was choreographed by Ganesh Acharya.
Others present included defence minister Manohar Parrikar and AYUSH minister Shripad Naik, apart from I and B Secretary Ajay Mittal, Goa chief secretary R K Shrivastava, festival director C Senthil Rajan and Entertainment Society of Goa CEO Ameya Abhyankar.
Balasubrahmanyam was presented the award for his remarkable, extraordinary and exceptional journey in Indian cinema as a singer, actor and producer.
The ‘Ode to a Woman’ had dance sequences featured the evolutionary journey of contribution of woman to Indian cinema as a dreamer, radical, leader, creator, fighter, challenger and game changer. Supported by projections of the life and cinema of the period on the background and numbers on stage performances presented a seamless beautiful act recreating the nostalgic memories of woman traversing changing decades.
Other celebrities attending the opening include members of the International Jury (Ivan Passer, Larry Smith, Lordan Zafranovic, Nagesh Kukunoor and Leila Kilani) and Indian Panorama jury, Nana Patekar, Mukesh Khanna, Mrinal Kulkarni, Divya Dutta, Sudheer Mishra, Nagesh Kukunoor, Prosenjit Chatterjee and Goutam Ghose.
IFFI 2016 will have 194 films from 88 countries with focus on Korea. It would also organize a special tribute section in the memory of Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda and Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, both of whom passed away this year.
The 47th edition of IFFI would screen three films for specially-abled children with special audio described technology under the Accessible India Campaign/ Sugamaya Bharat Abhiyan. This screening would take place in collaboration with UNESCO and Saksham.
Inspired by the Government’s Clean India Drive, IFFI 2016 will showcase a special package of 20 award winning short films based on the Swachh Bharat theme.
The 47th edition of the festival besides showcasing films from across the globe would also bring interactive sessions, workshops and informative classes from global masters of the art in Direction, Documentary film making, Editing, Art Direction, Cinematography, VFX & Animation and Action Direction.
Meanwhile, Naidu opened the Indian Panorama featuring 26 feature and 21 non-feature films which had a Sanskrit film - ‘Ishti’ by G Prabha - as the inaugural for the second year in a row.
Naidu said: “We are here today to celebrate the boundless power of the creative medium of cinema”. He further said that Indian Panorama presented a platform for young, aspiring and independent film makers from India to showcase their craft to an audience from across the world. Naidu said the Panorama had extended entries to uncensored video films as well with an aim to encourage the participation of latest films from across the country.
The jury of Feature Films, headed by well-known Director and Producer Rajendra Singh Babu, has selected 26 films out of 230 eligible entries. In the Non-Feature films jury chaired by well-known documentary filmmaker Shri Arvind Sinha has picked 21 films out of 199 eligible entries.
Manipuri film ‘Ima Sabitri’ directed by Bobo Khuraijam was the opening non-feature film of Indian Panorama 2016.
