Third Eye Asian Film festival begins in Mumbai
The 15th Third Eye Asian Film festival was opened on Thursday 15th December, with the opening ceremony at the hands of Mr. Ram Naik, Governor of U.P. On this inaugural day, well known film maker Govind Nihalani was felicitated with the prestigious Film Culture Award, which was presented to him by chief guest Mr. Ram Naik. Speaking on this occasion, Mr. Govind Nihalani stressed the need of producing films connected with Indian soil. ” We should be proud of our own culture and see to it that our films go worldwide,” he said.
Chief guest Mr. Ram Naik praised the hard work put in by Mr. Sudheer Nandgaonkar for organizing this festival every year. Present on this occasion were Mr. Kiran Shantaram, president of the organizing committee, Jury member of short film section Ramesh Talwar and others. This seven day festival will be held upto 22nd December, when films from countries like Iran, Nepal, Bangladesh, Korea, Vietnam, Lebanon will be screened. There is a separate section for Marathi films in this festival, besides competition for short films.
Chitrapati V.Shantaram Awards Presented
The 17th edition of the V.Shantaram Awards for the best in Indian cinema, were presented at a glittering function at a suburban five-star hotel recently. The event was also a part of the felicitation to actress Sandhya who was a part of many Shantaram classics like ‘Navrang’, ‘Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje’, ‘Jal Bin Machli Nritya Bin Machli’, ‘Pinjara’, etc .
On this occasion, Sandhyaji requested the cine lovers to bless her children .
A special dance medley of Sandhyaji’s classic dance numbers from ‘Navrang’ were performed by choreographer Pony Verma and group, much to the delight of audience.
Mr. Kiran Shantaram said that the V.Shantaram awards were special, as out of 1000 films made in India in 2009, only a select few were nominated by the jury members.
The awards presented were for- Best Film-Kanjeevaram(Malayalam –Director-Priyadarshan), Best Actor-Prakash Raj(Wanted Fame)-Malayalam ‘Kanjeevaram’ –Dir-Priyadarshan, Best FemaleActor-Rani Mukherjee –(Dil Bole Hadippa), Best Supporting Actor-Female- Renuka Shahane( Rita), Best Music -Preetam (Love Aaj Kal), Best Cinem atography –Theeru(Kanjivaram), Best Editing Aarti Bajaj( Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi), Best Sound Recording -Anuj Mathur(Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi), Special Award in Direction Nandita Das(Firaaq ).
Celebrities who were spotted at the event were- Jeetendra, Randhir Kapoor,Yash and Pami Chopra , Vikas Desai, Basu Chatterjee, Jayshree.T, Imtiaz Ali, Dinesh Vijan, Upendra Limaye, Jagmohan Mundhra, Pandit Jasraj, Durga Jasraj,Sulochana, Ashok and Nivedita Saraf etc. Actor-VJ- Gaurav Kapur hosted the show in his witty comic way, while Rahul Shantaram proposed vote of thanks.
Third Eye Film Festival opens with ‘Harischandrachi Factory’
The 8th Third Eye Asian Film festival was inaugurated on Friday 4th December 2009 at 8 pm, when the Chief Guest Ms. Vijaya Mehta lighted the lamp and declared the festival open. In her short speech the former theatre personality and director narrated the excitement during their good old days, to watch foreign films at such festivals, whenever held in Mumbai. She was more keen on watching the opening film ‘Harishchandrachi factory’ which was to be screened after the inaugural function.
Also present on the occasion were Mr. Kiran Shantaram, Chairman of the Asian film Festival, Mr. Sudhir Nandgaonkar, Creative Director of the Third Eye Asian Festival, Mr. K.J. Verma, Regional Manager of State Bank of India( The sponsors) and Mr. Paresh Mokashi, Director of the film ‘Harischandrachi Factory’. During the ceremony, the organizers welcomed all the Jury members coming from different countries like Poland, Iran, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Japan. Mr. Nandgaonkar briefed the delegates about various categories under which the films were classified. The Festival will also screen short films from different countries. The Third Eye festival will focus on Egypt, as there will be seven films from this country. Films will be screened at Plaza Cinema, Chavan Centre and Rangswar till 10th of December 2009. Registration of delegates is in full swing and the schedule is available on their site also