Dubai Film Festival to Celebrate 100 Years of Indian Cinema

LONDON – The upcoming Dubai International Film Festival will feature a special "Celebration of India" program to mark 100 years of cinema in the country.

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Among two announced world premieres featured in the special section of the festival will be Bengali director, screenwriter and actor Kaushik Ganguly’s Sound (Shobdo). The film is based on the life of a sound artist in Tollywood, the film industry of West Bengal, whose life becomes inextricably intertwined with the sounds that he has to produce for a living.

The ninth edition of the Dubai festival will also play host to the world debut of Shutter from actor-turned-filmmaker Joy Mathew. He marks his directorial debut with the satire, which he also wrote. The film is set and filmed in the Southern Indian city of Kozhikode and revolves around three individuals, a wandering film director, an expatriate from the Gulf and a Kozhikodan auto driver. All three of them find themselves embroiled in unforeseen circumstances.

Dubai organizers also said a host of Indian films that have unspooled at festivals around the world will feature in the lineup. Movies include Hansal Mehta's Shahid, Miss Lovely directed by Ashim Ahluwalia and Anand Ghandi's Ship of Theseus.

DIFF director of Asia Africa programming Nashen Moodley said: "To commemorate 100 years of Indian cinema, we have selected a collection of unique films that reflect the richness, flavor and essence of Indian filmmaking. Over 1,000 films are made every year in India, and the platter is huge and diverse, which is a testament to the filmmaking excellence we see year after year."

The India sidebar will also include a homage by filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta to cultural icon, poet and Nobel prize winner Rabindranath Tagore on the 150th anniversary of his birth. Dasgupta will pay homage with thirteen short films based on thirteen poems.

The festival runs Dec. 9-16.