A hugely popular section of IFFI 2017 is Indian Panorama: Meet the Directors, where the delegates and the media interact with the directors of the film screened at the cinematic extravaganza in Goa.
Also, this year at the festival, regional cinema has arrested the attention of cinephiles. Popular Marathi actor, Prasad Oak spoke at length about his directorial debut Kaccha Limbu, that was met with commendable appreciation, while National Award-winning filmmaker Deepak Gawade went on to talk about his Marathi film Idak: The Goat.
Prasad Oak, who makes his directorial debut with the Marathi film, Kaccha Limbu and has been the recipient of several awards and state honours for his work, says, “This is a very proud moment for Team Kaccha Limbu. It is my directorial debut. We are very happy that IFFI gave us the chance to participate this year. I'm very happy because there are nine films in Marathi fraternity in the festival this year. And amongst all nine films, only Kaccha Limbu was selected internationally. Kaccha Limbu deals with a problem of special parents. I always feel that the problem of those special parents is very big than the special child. We always give them sympathy. We always try to help them in a negative way. We always look at them in a very wrong way. They don't need all that. They just need love. I just want to portray that love through this film. It deals about the sexual, the physical and the economic problem of a special parent.”
Deepak Gawade adds, “Regional cinema is doing very well for the past three to four years. Content is the life of that cinema. People come to watch just that. We are proud as regional filmmakers that our content is well accepted not just by Bollywood audience but it is also internationally recognized. The producers also don’t look at the figures anymore. Once they are impressed with the content they want to support you.”
Nila Madhav Panda, Director of the film Kadawi Hawa and filmmaker Atanu Mukherji of the film Rukh were also part of the Indian Panorama – Meet the Directors session.
The 48th edition of IFFI is being held from the 20th to 28th of November, 2017, in the beach state of Goa.