By Anil Mishra
Panaji, Nov 22 (UNI) Well known film director and Chairman of Jury, Indian Panorama (Feature), of the 49th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) Rahul Rawail has said that it was a tough exercise to select 22 films from a list of more than 100 films which were simply great.
Addressing a press conference during the 49th International Film Festival of India (IFF) here on Wednesday, he said the festival collection included some fantastic films with brilliant content that were not previously experimented.
He said the films selected were those worthy enough to showcase India on the global stage and that content that engages the audience was given prominence.
Replying to a query, the Chairman asserted that there was no such thing as national film or anti-national film.
'The jury considers all movies that come before it as Indian movies,' he said and stated that the controversy regarding omission of certain movies from Indian Panorama was unfortunate and that the jury was given full autonomy in arriving at its decisions.
Speaking on the importance of highlighting movies that tend to be ignored by the market, Mr Rawail observed that the biggest mafia ruling the industry was the multiplex mafia as they were not interested in the content of the movies and only interested in movies which helped them to attract crowd.
He said that there was a need to develop infrastructure for distributing good films that deserve to be watched at low cost.
Speaking on regional cinema, the renowned director said the growth of regional cinema in India had been absolutely fantastic and it was making huge strides.
He said the day was not far when there would be no distinctive entity called regional cinema and all cinema would be referred to as cinema.
Highlighting the range of films featured in the Indian Panorama section at IFFI, Mr Rawail said the array of selected films included those set in Ladakh, Lakshwadeep, Tulu and Assam.
The International Film Festival of India (IFFI) is underway here and will conclude on November 28, 2018.
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