The International Film Festival of India (IFFI) is celebrating its golden jubilee this year. To commemorate this, the event organisers have decided to screen all the films that won the National Awards in 1969, the year IFFI was started. The Telugu Varakatnam directed by legendary actor late NT Rama Rao and the Tamil Iru Kodugal directed by veteran director late K Balachander are among the films featured in the Golden Lining Films section.
The golden jubilee edition of the film festival will take place from November 20 to 28 at Panjim, Goa. Besides Varakatnam and Iru Kodugal, films in Odiya, Bengali, Kannada, Hindi, Assamese and Malayalam will also be screened in the Golden Lining Films section.
Varakatnam featured NT Rama Rao himself in the lead role with Savitri and Krishna Kumari playing the women leads. It was produced by NTR’s younger brother N Trivikrama Rao under the banner Ramakrishna & NAT Combines. The technical crew of this film included TV Raju for music, Ravikant Nagaich for cinematography and GD Joshi for editing. Varakatnam won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu.
K Balachander’s Iru Kodugal, which will also be screened, had Gemini Ganesan, Sowcar Janaki and Jayanthi playing the lead roles with Nagesh, VS Raghavan and SN Lakshmi in pivotal roles. Iru Kodugal won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil. After it became a huge box office success, it was remade in Kannada as Eradu Rekhegalu, in Telugu as Collector Janaki and in Hindi as Sanjog.
Deccan Chronicle reports that around 200 films from 76 countries will be screened during this fest. Twenty-six feature films and 15 non feature films will be screened in the Indian panorama section. Around 10,000 people are expected to attend and participate in the 50th year edition of the IFFI.
(Content provided by Digital Native)