The Orange City Cultural Foundation will organise a two-day Marathi Film Festival at the Kavi Kulguru Kalidas Auditorium, Persistent Systems Ltd, Gayatri Nagar, on December 13 and 14, informed Dr Chandrashekhar Meshram, Founder President, Orange City Cultural Foundation at a press conference held on Tuesday. The event is being organised by Orange City Cultural Foundation, along with the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU), Mukta Arts, Cine Montage, Saptak, and Persistent Systems.

 

The festival will be inaugurated by Adv Ashish Shelar, Minister for Cultural Affairs, on December 13 at 11.30 am. Dr Manali Kshirsagar, Vice-Chancellor, RTMNU; along with Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari, Commissioner and Administrator, NMC, will be prominently present on the occasion. The organisers have also highlighted that the directors of these movies will be present during the screening, and a question-answer session will be held after each movie so that the audience can interact with the directors and understand the thought and effort that went behind making the films. Another special feature of the film festival is a discussion ‘Marathi Chitrapat - Kal, Aaj aur Kal’ that will be held on December 13 at 3 pm.

 

Shailendra Bagde, Director, GOTT; Chhatrapal Ninawe, Director, Ghaat; Janardan Kadam, Actor, Ghaat; and Vinod Kamble, Director, Kastoori, will be present to interact with the audience. The Marathi movies ‘Ghaat’, ‘Sthal’, and ‘Valu’ will be screened on December 13 from 12 noon onwards, and ‘April May 99’, ‘Ventilator’, and ‘Samhita’ will be screened on December 14. The entry is free of cost and no prior registration is required to attend the programme. It will be on a strictly first-come-first-serve basis, and entry is only open to people over the age of 16. Dr Chandrashekhar Meshram and Dr Uday Gupte urged citizens to attend the screening, saying that it was a tribute to the richness of Marathi cinema. They expressed hope that such initiatives would inspire young creators to step into filmmaking and carry forward the legacy of regional cinema.