Filmy festival beckons

The town will soon see the 3rd edition of the Delhi International Film Festival (DIFF - 2014). DIFF 2014 has been planned as a seven-day event and is an initiative by ‘The Social Circle - society for cause and - a step toward inclusiveness’ to showcase the best of cinema, art and literature from across the globe.

Started in the year 2012, the advisory board for this festival is headed by Dada Saheb Phalke awardee Adoor Gopal Krishnan. Working closely with him are some of the greats of Indian cinema namely  national award winning director Tigmanshu Dhulia, Anurag Kashyap, Anooj Kapoor, Mohan Agashe, Manoj Bajpai, Mandira Bedi, Shriram Raghwan, Jimmi Shergil, N Chandra, Sandeep Marwah, Shailesh Loadha, Yashpal Sharma, Arvind Gaur and Satish Anand from Pakistan.

The event will see an award distribution ceremony for various competitive categories along with the Life Time Achievement Award and a special award called Minare Dilli. The awards will be conferred to individuals for their valuable contribution to cinema, theatre and for their work in art  and culture.

 In the first edition, the Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Sharmila Tagore and the Minare Dilli was conferred to veteran actress Zohara Sahgal. In the 2nd edition of the festival Shatrughan Sinha was conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award and the chairman of DLF,  KP Singh received the Minare Dilli Award. 

The second edition had a larger coverage than the first and graced many more personalities from the field of politics, film and fashion. 

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rajiv Shukla inaugurated the 2nd edition in the presence of the princess of Thailand. 

The festival will commence from 20 December and will continue till 27 December.