Savarkar biopic to be opening film of Indian Panorama section at International Film Festival of India in Goa

New Delhi: Biopic on controversial Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar will be the opening film of the Indian Panorama section at next month’s International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.

Two Kannada films – ‘Venkya’ by Sagar Puranik and ‘Kerebete’ by Gururaj B – are among the 25 feature films chosen for the Indian Panorama section.

Puranik also plays the lead role in Venkya, which portrays the emotional journey of a person from North Karnataka. Kerebete is a romantic drama, which tells the story of the twists and turns in the life of a youth who was released from jail.

Hindi movie ‘Swatantrya Veer Savarkar’ directed by Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda, who also plays the lead role, was chosen as the opening movie of the Indian Panorama section by a jury led by Dr Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, a director, actor and screenwriter.

The package of 25 Feature Films including 5 films from mainstream cinema have been chosen from a broad spectrum of 384 contemporary Indian feature films.

Among the 25 feature films, five are from Hindi, which also include ‘Mahavatar Narasimha’, ‘Article 370’, ‘12th Fail’ and ‘Srikanth’.

Four Malayalam movies – Prithviraj-starrer ‘Aadujeevitham’, Mammooty-starrer ‘Bramayugam’, ‘Level Cross’ and ‘Manjummel Boys’ – are also part of the Indian Panorama. Tamil film ‘Jigarthanda Double X’ and Telugu movies ‘Chinna Katha Kaadu’ and 3D movie ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ are also part of the section.

Also, 20 non-feature films have also been chosen from 262 films for this section and Ladakhi language non-feature ‘Ghar Jaisa Kuch’ will be the opening film in India Panorama’s non-feature film section.

The package of Non-Feature Films exemplifies the capacity of emerging and established filmmakers to document, investigate, entertain and also reflect contemporary Indian values.