'Leading Kannada film personality will be asked to inaugurate IFFI'

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, JUNE 29. In keeping with tradition, a leading film personality will be asked to inaugurate the forthcoming 32nd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) to be held here.

The State Government had made a request to the organisers of IFFI that an eminent Kannada film personality be given the honour of declaring open the festival, the Minister of State for Information, Prof. B. K. Chandrashekhar, told presspersons on Friday.

It was proposed to hold a retrospective of Kannada films so that the international delegates would come to know about the strides made by the Kannada film industry. As many as 20 films were likely to be selected for the Kannada retrospective. A committee would be constituted to choose the films, Prof. Chandrashekhar said. The festival was being held here at the request of the State Government which would be spending about Rs. 2 crores for co-hosting the festival, most of which would go towards the travel, hotel and transport expenses of the delegates.

He said the State Government would be providing infrastructural support to the Directorate of Film Festivals by providing office and residential accommodation for officers and staff of the directorate.

He said that the tremendous tourism potential of the film festival would be exploited to the full. The Tourism Department had already started working on various tour packages for the delegates and their spouses. ``We want to show the excellent locations in Karnataka for film shooting and would like foreign film-makers to make use of the locations.''

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : Centre to release funds to pay maize growers
Next     : Revision in train timings, numbers from July 1