Dubai (PTI): With a view to boosting Indo-UAE ties, a festival showcasing nine award-winning Indian films is being organised in Abu Dhabi. The five-day event which began on Monday has been jointly organised by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) and the Indian embassy in the UAE.

Inaugurating the festival, Indian Ambassador, Talmiz Ahmad, said the screening of award-winning films from India will help deepen the relationship between the two countries by providing an opportunity to UAE nationals to have an insight into the Indian culture.

Mohammed Khalaf Al-Mazroueim, Director-General of the ADACH, described the festival as not only a celebration of cinema but a celebration of the Indo-UAE cultural dialogue. Film directors T V Chandran and Girish Kasaravalli as well as actor Navya Nair were also present at the opening.

The two directors said, India is a multi-lingual and multi-cultural country and some of the regional films seek to capture the nuances of those cultural divergences in an intense manner.

It is important to show those films to the people outside the country so that they will have a better understanding of the life and cultures of the people in different parts of India, they said.

"All films to be screened fall outside of the commercial criteria and reflect the underlying reality of the Indian life at multiple levels, according to the festival director," said B Shamnad. Some films made by the people from UAE will also be screened during the festival.