Transcending boundaries, Inventing Culture & The Secret to India’s rising popularity discussed at SCO Film Festival
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization Film Festival hosted veterans from the film industry in multiple sessions today. In addition to film screenings, discussion sessions were held on various subjects ranging from music to animation and intellectual property rights.
The day began with the screening of the Gujarati film, ‘The Last Film Show’. The day also saw the screenings of Mom I’m Alive! From Kazakhstan, Podelniki (The Riot) from Russia, B for Busy from China and the Marathi film Godavari under the competition section.
The first-panel discussion of the day was on ‘Creating Infinite Worlds using Animation’. Panellists Munjal Shroff, Director of Graphiti Multimedia and Jayakumar Prabhakaran, CEO of Toonz Animation shared their personal experiences in the Indian animation industry. Panellists also discussed how cinema and television were constantly engaging in the act of cultural invention and the social ramifications of the same.
Renowned filmmakers Rahul Rawail and Ramesh Sippy were joined by veteran actor Asha Pareksh in an In-Conversation session on ‘Indian Cinema’s rising popularity in the SCO region’. The panellists discussed factors that make Indian cinema so endearing along with cross-cultural influences in cinema. Ramesh Sippy stated that the simplicity of characters in cinema is what made blurring of boundaries possible. Asha Parekh cited Music as the reason behind these connections, while Rahul Rawail attributed the attraction towards Indian cinema to its timeless charm.
The day ended with a ‘Fire side chat’ session titlee Breaking Barriers’ with Kazakh singer and composer Dimash Kudaibergen. After leaving the audience in awe by narrating his personal journey to stardom, Dimesh Kudaibergen stated that Music is in itself a language that transcends boundaries. The session and the day ended with a true embodiment of togetherness and cooperation as Dimash Kudaibergen sang the hit Bollywood song, ‘Jimmy Jimmy’ from the film Disco Dancer to roaring applause.