Regional flavour to spice up film festival this Dasara

The Dasara film festival sub-committee has decided to screen, on a big scale, regional language movies that have featured in prestigious film festivals. Dasara begins on September 25 and ends on October 4.

Unlike last year, when only two Malayalam films were screened, this year’s festival will have Assamese, Marathi and Bengali movies, along with Kannada and Hindi films, A R Prakash working president of the sub-committee, told Deccan Herald. Prakash is also the deputy director of the Department of Information and Public Relations.

Prakash said that they were already in the process to procure films from the Directorate of Film Festivals, New Delhi. Following a missive (from Information department in Mysore), officials at the directorate have sent a list of 25-odd films.

The sub-committee is yet to shortlist the films. Once the list is prepared, the directorate will send the digital video discs (DVDs). However, it will be for free as the directorate has the rights to screen films in any festival across the country.

Earlier, apart from Kannada films (both commercial and art), only hit films from Hindi were screened during the festival. Last year, mass entertainers like ‘Chennai Express’ and ‘Bhaag Milka Bhaag’ were shown.

As Dasara attracts people from across the country and the world, screening of regional films is expected to draw crowds.

This year, a mix of 105 films are set to be screened. While 16 regional films will be screened in two shows for eight days at Senate Bhavan, Manasagangotri, 24 foreign films will be shown in three shows at Rani Bahadur Auditorium. Plans are also afoot to screen movies at one of the auditoriums on the premises of the Karnataka State Open University.

Prakash said that three theatres and two multiplexes will also be hosting the fest, where only runaway hits will be screened in morning show. LCD screens will be put up at select parks in the localities, screening two films per day in the evening.