Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, June 12: Prominent film celebrities will be attending the 3rd Edition of Kashmir World Film Festival (KWFF) commencing from June 19 –June 25 at Tagore Hall here.
The organizers in a statement today said that the celebrities who have been locked for the festival include Tanishaa Mukerji, Rajit Kapur, Imran Khan, Raj Bhansal, Komal Nahta, Gauhar Raza, Mir Sarwar and others. The delegates are coming from the places like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Trivandrum, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Jammu and others.
Festival Director, Mushtaaque Ali Ahmad Khan said that the preparations for the festival are going on in full swing. “All the people connected with the KWFF are working day and night to complete the preparation for its 3rd edition on time,” he said.
He said so far they have received more than hundred films for the screening but they will be screening only around 45 films in the seven day film festival.
“The films that have been received are from different countries that include Italy, USA, Iran, Korea, Poland, Turkey, Japan and Nepal. The films are of different languages including English, Italian, Hindi, Kashmiri, Persian, Korean, Assamese, Punjabi, Nepali, Turkish, Marathi, Japanese, Malayalam and Sindhi,” he said.
Khan aspires to take the festival among top ten festivals of the world. “We want to make this festival a success and want it be recognized internationally,” he said adding, “the film celebrities will be interacting with the students and film freaks during the festival and will provide them a platform.”
Meanwhile, the film celebrities have expressed high spirits for organizing this film festival. “I have been associated with this festival since the first edition and I will always be there. To make this festival a huge success, we need the support from so many quarters. I am very positive about the future of the festival and it has to go a long way. I see a bright future for KWFF,” said Rajit Kapur, an actor and a director.
Gauhar Raza, a poet and filmmaker said that the film festival and the similar other festivals are the need of an hour in Kashmir. “It is very courageous step taken by the organizers. I wish this festival such a success where the international filmmakers would aspire to join it,” he said.
Raj Bansal, a leading film distributor from Jaipur said that the KWFF is one unique film festival, which truly gives the opportunity to the youth of “Kashmir to showcase their talent and culture through art and cinema. Kashmir has abundance of raw talent which hasn’t been explored yet and I sincerely hope that our joint effort in association with KWFF gives Kashmir the global exposure and the platform to help the youth to bring out their hidden talent. I feel very privileged to be a part of this festival,” he said.
Ashok Kaul, a filmmaker from Mumbai said, “I have full faith that the KWFF will unleash the enormous talent of our youth across all the regions of our state. I congratulate the team KWFF who has worked very hard to create a beautiful horizon and hope for all the talented youth of our state through this festival”.
Bollywood actor of Kashmiri origin, Mir Sarwar said the KWFF is a wonderful platform for the budding filmmakers of Kashmir. “The best thing about the festival is that the audience and students get to see some rare films, especially world class cinema which is not easily available to us. I have great hopes from this festival,” he said.
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