6th Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival to focus on unreleased films

The 6^th edition of Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival (HBFF), organised by the non-profit organisation Bengalis in Hyderabad, will begin on 18 July. The film festival will be inaugurated by Telegu superstar Akkineni Nagarjuna and eminent Bengali director Buddhadeb Dasgupta at Prasad Labs Preview Theatre. Along with Nagarjuna and Dasgupta, noted Bangladeshi writer and producer Faridur Reza Sagar will also be felicitated in the three-day festival. The inaugural function and the felicitation ceremony will be followed by the premiere show of Dasgupta’s Urojahaj. Bengali actresses Rituparna Sengupta and Swastika Mukherjee will also be present.

The film festival will also celebrate the centenary of Bengali cinema with the screenings of classics by Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Tapan Sinha, Goutam Ghose, Rituparno Ghosh. The segment titled, ‘Revisit 100: Silent, Golden and Contemporary Era of Bengali Cinema’ intends to visit the journey of Bengali cinema across different eras, since 1919, beginning with the works of Hiralal Sen.

The Bengali Panorama Segment will feature 13 Bengali films, among which Subrata Sen’s Manob Manobi and Indranil Ghosh’s Shironam will have World Premiere and Saibal Mitra’s Tokhon Kuasha Chilo will have India Premiere. Nine Hindi films will also be premiered at the film festival and noted editor Dilip Deo’s Unwanted will be screened for the first time.

The director of the prestigious festival, Partha Pratim Mallick said, “The 6^th edition of HBFF is going to be quite exciting and happening with the inclusion of three World premieres, one India premiere and nine Hyderabad premieres. We tried to include as many unreleased films as possible because it is no more a challenge to watch new Bengali releases in Hyderabad.”

“A major team of delegation is coming from Bangladesh to present a film Iti Tomar Dhaka. At HBFF, it’s our aim to present a platform for cultural exchange,” added Mallick, also mentioning that they make it a point to release films of various other language backgrounds at the festival.

The film festival will also host Indus tale, a lifestyle exhibition of art, handcraft, fashion, food, real estate and technology. More than 50 dignitaries from around the world will be present at the film festival to interact with the audience and preside as the jury for Critic’s Choice Awards. The Seed segment of the festival will present short films and documentaries from all over the world.

The film festival will close with the screening of Shraboner Dhara by Sudeshna Roy and Abhijit Guha on 21 July.