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SCO Film Festival to open with Priyadarshan’s Appatha
‘Padma Shri’ and national award-winning filmmaker Priyadarshan’s movie ‘Appatha’ was selected as the opening film at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Film Festival and will premiere on Friday during the curtain raisers at the Films Division Complex in Mumbai
‘Padma Shri’ and national award-winning filmmaker Priyadarshan’s movie ‘Appatha’ was selected as the opening film at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Film Festival and will premiere on Friday during the curtain raisers at the Films Division Complex in Mumbai.
The Tamil film which stars Kavitha Ranjini, popularly known as ‘Urvashi’ in the lead role will also be the actor’s 700th film in a career spanning over 51 years in the Indian film industry.
This is also the first time in 28 years that director Priyadarshan will be reuniting with Urvashi as their last project was ‘Midhunam’ which was released in 1993.
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Priyadarshan while expressing his delight at Appatha opening the SCO Film festival had stated that his latest venture was something that he ‘had not attempted earlier’.
“We are honoured Appatha has been selected as the opening film on this prestigious occasion. I would like to thank my producers Jio Studios and Wide Angle Creations for bringing this simple and lovely story to me. It has been a pleasure collaborating on this film and wonderful to be working with a phenomenal talent like Urvashi on her milestone 700th film,” Priyadarshan said in a statement.
Union information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur while reflecting back to the selection of Apaatha as the curtain raiser at the SCO film festival said, “We are delighted to commence the festival with the world premiere of Shri Priyadarshan’s film Appatha. It is a touching story of love and our bond with our pets. The SCO film festival is all set to be a melting pot of myriad vibrant cultures, spectacle of aesthetic sensibilities and sheer cinematic excellence over the next five days beginning on 27th January,” while adding, “We are immensely proud to host the SCO film festival to mark the chairmanship of India at SCO for 2022-23. India’s goal of organising the festival is to showcase the diversity of films and various styles of film making from the SCO region. We also aim to build cinematic partnerships, have exchange of programmes, nurture young filmmaking talent and act as a bridge between the cultures of this unique region.”
Appatha is written by Hardik Gajjar with a screenplay by Priyadarshan and Deepthi Govindarajan.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization Film Festival will take place between 27-31 January in Mumbai.
The event is also said to mark India’s Presidency at SCO from September 2022 to 2023.
The opening ceremony of the festival will be held at the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, NCPA, Mumbai while the closing ceremony will be held on January 31. All screenings will take place at the Film Division Complex at Pedder Road and NFDC Theater at Nehru Planetarium Building at Worli.
A total of 57 films will be showcased during the festival with popular works like that of Shoojit Sircar’s Sardar Udham, SS Rajamouli’s film RRR, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi, Mridul Toolsidas’s Toolsidas Junior and Chetan Bhakuni short-film Jugalbandi which all be a part of the festival.
