Comeback of cine fest

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(Above and below) Stills from the movie Chitrangada

Freedom of expression and thought is going to be the focus of the 12th edition of the Osian’s Cine Film Festival (OCFF), which is back after a gap of two years and starts from July 27 to August 5.

Around 200 Arab and Asian films will be screened at the Siri Fort complex, Osianama at the Kila and the Blue Frog during this fest.
According to Neville Tuli, the brain behind the festival, India has a great love for cinema, but a very weak and poor cinematic culture. “For cinema to play a role, which in India can be pivotal, many infrastructure-building changes are required,” says Neville, who’s hopeful that with the arrival of The Osianama, the cultural landscape will fundamentally change.
Along with film screenings, interesting segments of the festival will include Cinefan Film memorabilia auction, the section on animation films and environment and a tribute to veteran filmmaker Mani Kaul, who was associated with the fest since 2006.
The past decade has seen a slew of commercially and critically successful films like Rang de Basanti, Delhi 6, Dev D, Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye!, Delhi Belly and Rockstar set in Delhi. So, an interesting feature of the fest is the two-day summit, “Delhi As India’s Next Cinema City”.
“Delhi seems to attract films that are both commercially viable as well as artistically challenging. Its settings and life seem to offer a counterpoint to Mumbai. Shooting films in Mumbai is becoming increasingly difficult and that also provides impetus to the trend in filming in Delhi. One notices that every director who makes a film about Delhi has a totally different world to present to us which is not the case of films that have Mumbai as their setting,” informs Niranjan Desai, chief spokesperson, Osian’s Cinefan.
Niranjan further adds, “The summit will bring together leading experts relevant to taking forward the development of cinema in Delhi. Also invited will be leading academics, critics and cultural commentators to offer their thoughts towards developing the city as a culturally exciting site for Indian cinema. We will also hold a number of events that will celebrate not only this cinema but also formidable contributions to music, literature and painting.”
Neville sums up, “The nature of the participation of the youth at OCFF is imperative. So, the usage of social media network is a major turning point for our outreach programmes.”