Films at IFFI to reflect story of India, encourage creative entrepreneurship: Shashi Shekhar, Prasar Bharti CEO

It is going to be the sea and cinema all around as Goa hosts the 48th edition of International Film Festival of India from November 20-28.

This year's film festival, which would be inaugurated by actor Sharukh Khan, will encourage creative entrepreneurship and highlight the stories of India along with a finely curated anthology from the world cinema. India's public broadcaster, Prasar Bharti , is all set to bring the spirit of the celebration of cinema to every Indian home. 

In an interview to Doordarshan, Shashi Shekhar, the Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharti shared what is special about this edition of the annual festival.

The film festival this year is going to be a celebration of Indian stories and added that the country is at a very critical juncture, a large part of the population is young with very high aspirations. "You will see that the choice of films during the entire festival will reflect that story of India," Sashi Shekhar said.

Referring to the reach of Indian movies in India and across the globe, he said "This year, Indian movies have made a mark across the globe. Movies like Dangal did very well in China, the ones like Bahubali broke all the records and became a reflection of India's soft power."

He added, "Public broadcaster is a very integral part of this entire process, where we will take the film festival from Goa into every household of India and make it the people's film festival, this is what we are hoping for." 

"India has the potential to become the hub for creative entrepreneurship and there will be special focus on it during the film festival in Goa," CEO of the public broadcaster informed.

"Taking the international film festival to every household doesn't mean just providing entertainment, but the motive is to inspire the creative and entrepreneurial aspirations of the youth, so they can chanelise their creative energies towards growing the economy of India where India becomes the hub of creative expression across the world," he added.

When asked about the world movies in the festival, Shekhar said, "The opening movie is a movie made by an Iranian filmmaker on India, very unique combination, and there is going to be a special segment on the James Bond movies over the Bond retrospective. I believe there will be special focus on Canada too."

"So it's the world coming to India and Indian stories going across the globe," he further added.

Refering to the special programmes planned by the broadcaster in connection with the IFFI, the CEO said,  "IFFI flashback will take a look at the journey of the film festival over the decades, the IFFI blockbuster cinema will take an in-depth look at some of the movies which will get featured in the festival, like what went into the making of the cinema."  

 "During the festival there will be an entire 90-minute segment every day in prime time, called IFFI dhamaka, which will cover various master classes, the press conferences, the screenings and the experience of the participants in the festival...so all of that will be covered, for the people who couldn't make it to Goa can experience it sitting at home."