Movies that appeal TO INDIAN KIDS
The second edition of National Children’s Film Festival (NCFF), organised by Children’s Film Society, India (CFSI) in association with Government of Rajasthan, opened to a colourful start on Monday in the Pink City of Jaipur.
The three-day biennial event was inaugurated by Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore at the Birla Auditorium in the presence of Mukesh Khanna, Chairman of CFSI, Dr Shravan Kumar, CEO of CFSI and prominent Bollywood celebrities Irrfan Khan, Anil Kapoor, Piyush Pandey, Ila Arun along with our very own little heroes Darsheel Safari, Faisal Khan and Ritvik.
With ‘Make in India’ as the central theme of the second edition of NCFF, the festival aims to showcase 40 films across 10 theatres in the city from November 14 to 16. These films are either made or shot in India or the makers are Indian. The list also includes a score of unreleased films produced by CFSI. In a bid to expand the market for children’s film and encourage talent in the country, Children’s Film Society, India launched the first edition of the National Children’s Film Festival in 2014 in Delhi with ‘Swachtha’ as the festival theme.
This year’s film festival kick started with the screening of CFSI’S offering directed by Ramkishan Choyal from Rajasthan. holds a special place in the hearts of the audience as the entire film is also shot in Rajasthan. Other fresh content that will be screened at the festival are Budhia Singh – Born to Run which will be premiered in NCFF. While Happy Mother’s Day, Kima’s Lode, Harun Arun, Ek Tha Bhujang are produced by CSFI, Half Ticket, Pasanga 2, Bravo Biju, Dad, I am
Watching You are a few curated movies amongst others. The films have been carefully handpicked to create an opportunity for children to experience qualitative content made exclusively for them. Some of these films have won several awards, globally.
Armed with the objective of developing a taste for good cinema and with a view to getting children acquainted with the basics of film making, CFSI is conducting workshops in filmmaking, script writing and animation. These workshops will be conducted for groups of talented and deserving children between the age group of 5 to 16 years. For the first time in National Children’s Film Festival, CFSI is also holding ‘Open Forums’ where noted filmmakers of children’s films will interact with the audience and share their view points on film making and developing quality content for children. The NCFF will also present a Kids Carnival on all the three days with puppetry shows, tattoo stalls and a specially designed marketing stall.
Mukesh Khanna, Chairperson, CFSI said, “I am happy that children of the great city of Jaipur will celebrate three days of the festival with us. Jaipur is a colourful city with rich cultural background. Dance, music, vibrant costumes, beautiful handicrafts... you name them and they are there. To this we will add vivid panorama of children’s films of all kinds from our side. And I am sure children of Jaipur would love to see their world through our films specially made for them. As chairman of CFSI, I wish them an enjoyable festival and through ‘Shaktimaan’ I give them lots of Shakti to learn and motivate themselves through these children’s films.”
Dr Shravan Kumar, Festival Director 2nd NCFF 2016 and CEO, CFSI, said, “Our International Children’s Film Festival is the largest film festival in the world. On similar lines, we created National Children’s Film Festival, that saw huge success and participations in its first edition. Nurturing their creativity and exposing the children from across India to a value based entertainment through CFSI movies was the thought behind conceiving this idea.”
Entry to the carnival, from 10AM to 4PM, is free. The workshops, open forums and kids carnival will be held at Jawahar Kala Kendra. CFSI is also holding ‘The Lucky 14 Contest’, where every 14 th downloader of the CFSI Mobile App will get a special merchandise. While Bollywood celebrities like Tisca Chopra and Faisal Khan are hosting the festival, Terence Dance Troupe will enthral the audience with cultural programmes.