RSS-backed body's 1st film festival in Lucknow from Saturday, to showcase 'Bhartiyata'

This film festival being held for the first time in Lucknow following the registration of the Awadh Chitra Sadhna earlier this year will have feature films conveying different issues like women empowerment, employment generation, social harmony, environment, future Bharat, tribal society and rural development.

Lucknow: Awadh Chitra Sadhna, an RSS-backed outfit, is set to organise its first two-day film festival here from November 16 to promote values of the Sangh and showcase issues rooted in 'Bhartiyata', an RSS functionary said on Friday.

The film festival, being organised in association with Lucknow's Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU), has received entries from across the country in categories such as documentary, short film, campus film, all bordering on issues like women empowerment, employment generation, social harmony, environment, future Bharat, tribal society, rural development and Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, Ashok Dubey said.

"Apart from these, there is a separate children's film category with entries focused on themes like courageous children, innovations in children's education and moral education. All the films in each category would be rooted in Bhartiyata," the RSS functionary told PTI.

This film festival being held for the first time in Lucknow following the registration of the Awadh Chitra Sadhna earlier this year will have feature films conveying different shades, he added.

"For instance, there is an entry titled 'Matar Paneer' – a film made by a director from the Valmiki community depicting through a storyline the struggles of a marginalised community when it decides to have 'matar-paneer', a dish it has heard about for long but never tasted," Govind Pandey, who heads the Awadh Chitra Sadhna, told PTI.

Pandey, who also heads the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the BBAU, said over 100 entries have been received and 50 of them would be screened at the film festival.

"There are so many interesting films, from Ram Mandir to Gulli Danda and a myriad of other themes," he added.

"Some of the films will make you laugh, some will make you cry but each one of them will have its own meaning," he said.

Narendra Thakur, the RSS's Akhil Bhartiya Sah Prachar pramukh, would be the chief guest at the inauguration, while Bollywood actor-producer Atul Pandey, along with BBAU Vice-Chancellor Professor NMP Verma, would preside over the inaugural event.

There will be two "masterclass" events in which Atul Pandey and well-known Lucknow-based theatre personality Anil Rastogi will interact with students. The concluding event on November 17 would feature senior journalist Anant Vijay.