First ever Chandigarh Film Festival launched

Launching the first ever Chandigarh Film Festival jointly organized by Chandigarh Tourism, CII and the National Film Development Corporation, at Fun Republic, here today, Punjab Governor General (retd.) J F Rodrigues said that the process for setting up the film city project is on the fast track and various innovative facilities like digital studio, multimedia university, animation and acting institute are being created to provide opportunities to our children to develop their potential and achieve prominence in the field.
He said that special focus will be given on educating our children about our rich heritage and promoting their creative endeavours. We have somehow lost track of our culture & heritage and need to take joy in our antecedents. General Rodrigues said that we are creating a good support infrastructure and 6-7 more multiplexes in the City and that this film city project will also have a special focus on research. Complementing the Chandigarh Tourism, CII and National Film Development Corporation for this initiative, General Rodrigues expressed the hope that it will be made broad based by attracting maximum participation and totally professional and that we will address the inadequacies that manifested themselves in Goa.
Mr. Gautam Kaul, President of the Delhi Film Society, and a noted film critic, in his keynote address said that, since the inception of international film festival in 1952 in the country, which is today the oldest event, the Chandigarh Film Festival is the youngest which needs to be nurtured for its proper growth. Mr. Krishna Mohan, Home Secretary, Chandigarh Administration, providing a brief overview of the growth of cinema over the years, said that it has always been reflecting the aspirations and psyche of the Indians amidst the changing times, from romance, to violence, to anger, to emergence of antiheros.
Mr. Partap Aggarwal, Chairman, CII Chandigarh Committee, said that media and entertainment has been accorded the status of an industry and this Rs.222 billion industry has shown great promise for achieving 16 percent growth through benchmarking with some of the best production techniques and standards available in the international entertainment industry. " India: The Big Picture Brand" is one of the major CII initiatives at the national level to give boost to the industry, he said. Mr. Vivek Atray, Director Tourism, UT Administration, said that this is just the beginning to the mega film festival to be organised in the city annually and part of the endeavour to promote the city for cinema tourism too.
The current film festival has been organised in collaboration with the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), Embassies of France and Hungary, and the Chandigarh Film Society, which has famous personalities like Yash Chopra and Anupam Kher on the board. Mr. J.S. Jolly, Senior Vice President, Fun Republic in his vote of thanks, informed that the festival opened with the famous award winning comedy, "Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron" in the Audi 1 of Fun Republic. Other pictures screened today include French films 'Clean' and 'The Ax', Hungarian film 'Slap Jack', besides the Hindi movies, 'Mirch Masala', and 'Salaam Bombay'.