Dinesh Kamath's news item 'International Film Festival in Navi Mumbai in Feb' that was published in Newsband

International Film Festival in Navi Mumbai in Feb

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: Sachin Khanna, an actor residing at Belapur in Navi Mumbai, had cone up with the idea of organizing an International Film Festival in Navi Mumbai. The best thing is that the organizers of this festival have so far received many film entries from all over the world. The festival is showing signs of becoming a huge success.

Sachin Khanna is an actor who pursues theatre, television, short-films and documentaries. When he saw the demand for films that existed in the city he thought about having a film festival over here. His idea was to provide opportunity to the people of the city to watch the best films from all over the world. He wanted to give the film makers from India as well as different parts of the world a chance to display their creative minds.

Sachin Khanna was inspired by the film festivals that were held at Mumbai. He thought of having a similar kind of event in Navi Mumbai too. That is what made him come up with the idea of having a Navi Mumbai International Film Fest (NMIFF). Khanna is the chairman of the committee which is organizing this festival.

This event will prove to be a golden opportunity for film makers to showcase their talent in film-making, innovating quality and creativity.

The three-day fest will take place somewhere in the first week of February. This festival will witness films of different genres from within India and different parts of the world. The main categories include student shorts, professional shorts and feature films. There will also be short films, AD films, animation films, documentaries, music videos and social awareness films.

The best thing is when it was announced that NMIFF is to be held in the city, a huge number of entries poured in. This was not expected by anybody. But this has excited the organizers to a great extent and they feel that the festival will be a huge success.

They have already received more than 150 films but their target is around 300. The deadline for submitting the entries is extended to December 31 after seeing the enthusiasm of the film lovers within India and all over the world. Even the local film lovers have shown their interest in this festival and there is quite a big number of film entries that have come from Navi Mumbai itself.

It was Khanna who conceived the idea but he received tremendous encouragement from Ashok Purang, a well-known director, writer who is also the director and core committee member of NMIFF. He was the creative producer for Filmistan, a 2013 movie that won the national award.

There are quite many ‘Bachelor of Mass Media (BMM)’ colleges in Navi Mumbai which teach the students the art of film making. These colleges hold film festivals from time to time meant for film loving students all over Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. During these festivals, in the past, it was found that Navi Mumbai students particularly had come up with huge number of film entries and they grabbed the opportunity to display their talents in the art of film making. In these festivals, they came up with many short films which were real delight and treat to watch. The education department of Mumbai University should be commended for having included the subject of film making in the curriculum. This has given many students of both Mumbai and Navi Mumbai a chance to channel their minds in the direction of film making. 

The aim of Navi Mumbai International Film Festival is also to give a platform to local talent and expose them to international cinema. The organizers have gone through many film entries and they find every film so well made that the judges are bound to find it tough to decide as to which films to eliminate from the contest.

The organizers are promoting and publicizing the films and filmmakers on various online platforms. This will surely help the participants of this festival to establish themselves as independent film-makers.

After witnessing so many film entries that have poured in, it seems that NMIFF will not find it tough to get enough sponsors who will provide adequate financial assistance to make the event a huge success.  If monetary support is lent by few reputed companies even it will help the organizers of this festival to conduct the event in a grand way. One shouldn’t be surprised if after the event Navi Mumbai becomes the new hub of cinema.