P Bharathiraja’s Om to open 3rd Singapore South Asian International Film Festival

Filmmaker P Bharathiraja’s Om, an acronym for Old Man, will open the third edition of the Singapore South Asian International Film Festival on 30 August. Incidentally, the filmmaker, who also features in the film with co-stars Nakshatra and Mounika, will be receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the festival.

The filmmaker has won the National award six times in his four-decade career and has also been honoured by the Padma Shri by the Indian government.

Festival director Narayanan Srinivasan commented about Om (2018) in a press release and said, "We are happy to have a great line up of films this year. With Bharathiraja being present himself, it would be a great honour for us to open the festival with his film Om."

What is amazing for me is, while Bharathiraja explored the relationship between an elderly man and young woman in his 1985 film, Muthal Mariyathai, he returns to the theme from a totally unexpected and unexplored angle," he added.

The festival, which began in 2017, will be held from 30 August to 7 September‬. It will screen more than 50 films this year from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bhutan, Singapore, Bangladesh, and Iran.