Kids film fest off to a colourful start

The 19th International Children’s Film Festival launches its mobile app at the inauguration on Children’s Day

Hyderabad: The 19th Golden Elephant International Children’s Film Festival had a colourful start on Saturday here. Present at the event were celebrities Kareena Kapoor, Karishma Kapoor, Tabu as well as Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.

The Children’s Film Society of India (CFSI) kick-started the week-long film extravaganza with the launch of its mobile app, adhering to its ‘Digital India’ theme for this year. The CFSI app is available on Google Play Store and has information pertaining to the festival. It also has paid previews, free shows, and trailers, a catalogue of the entire schedule and screening of films as well as an option to provide feedback on movies watched.

“Most children are tech-savvy today and this is one way of reaching out to children as well as their parents and teachers,” said Dr Shravan Kumar, festival director and CEO, CFSI.

Karisma Kapoor shared that she offered her support to the festival due to her 9-year-old daughter Samaira. “My daughter’s film called ‘Be Happy’ has been selected for screening at the fest. She has chosen her path and enjoys things like editing films, so I’m here to support her and all the other talented children out there,” said Karisma Kapoor.

The fest, which will end on November 20, was inaugurated by Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Mukesh Khanna at Shilpakala Vedika auditorium in Madhapur. The inaugural film screened titled ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ tells the story of the grassroots issues in an Indian family, and the love that a brother-sister duo express towards their mother.

The city has been beautifully decorated with colorful festoons, balloons, bright cut-outs and danglers at all major junctions and near screening theaters and education and government offices.

“Children are the future of India and their mental and intellectual growth is possible only when exposed to developments all over the world and I am confident that the 19th ICFFI will go a long way in that direction,” said Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao at media interaction.

All major junctions, commercial areas, Hitec City and school zones are decked up with 19th ICFFI banners and hoardings of Gajju, the baby golden elephant. The State government has provided buses and made arrangements for snacks and also drinking water at all theatres for the children. Volunteers and NGOs from children’s film movement are already engaged to spread awareness and also ensure that children do not miss the educative, informative, animation and also entertainment films and also the Digital India theme expo.

“We have booked an entire five-star hotel so that all delegates could be accommodated on one place and we are bringing schoolchildren from 79 schools to 12 theaters where films are screened daily,” said Naveen Mittal, the Commissioner of I & PR.

With a record number of 1,200 entries from 80 nations and the focus being on the theme of Digital India, the festival is reaching out to not only to kids in urban centers but also rural children from all the nine Telangana districts. Out of this, 124 film entries are from Indian filmmakers.